Fallout: New Carolina
by Sabor364
Summary: 20 years after the events of the Capital Wasteland, a man named Nathan and his friends escape from the clutches of the Enclave and venture into the Carolina Wasteland. It is mostly untouched by the great war though leaving many prewar cities and military installations isolated and untouched from the rest of America. Their goal is simple but complex at the same time. Build a nation.
1. Prologue

**A/N: I meant to complete this before Chapter three but it didn't happen like that. To me, this is essential to any fallout fanfic because they're in all the games. Sorry for the confusion this will cause. :(**

…

Prologue:

…

An old Jukebox in a diner sparked. It finally activated and the song made by Alabama had started called, "Dancin' Shaggin' on the Boulevard."

The camera pans out revealing the interior of a diner and it being pretty much destroyed. As the camera pans backwards and turns left, through a wall of windows, the ocean is seen on the other side of a railing that is of a boardwalk. Lyrics are resonated:

"_Well the, Magic Attic's where the music rolls"_

The camera pans out of the diner and pans left and up revealing a sign that stretches over a street stating "Boulevard." Several buildings are seen, being attractions as well as several skyscrapers in the background and a large Ferris wheel towering over them. A pack of canine-looking animals ran across the street from the ocean front.

"_And the Army-Navy's got ol' Jackie soul"_

The camera turns completely around and rapidly moves along the coastline at high speeds until passing over a city with smoke towers fuming in the air, and slowing down to stop at a large city with a bridge extending over a large harbor with a large battleship there.

"_Down on Peaches Corner there are Good Ol' Boys"_

Several Super Mutants were seen walking across the large bridge, one of them being a larger one towering over them carrying a fire hydrant mace.

"_And Mother Fletchers Makin' lots of noise"_

The camera then shows a city in the mountainous region that had "Columbia City Limits" on it. Some kind of large animal glided over it in the background.

"_They're dancin' shaggin' on the boulevard"_

The Camera flies towards another large city known as Charlotte.

"_Dancin' shaggin' on the boulevard"_

The Camera flies towards another city called Raleigh and several people in some kind of uniforms were cheering loudly to someone on a stage.

"_Well the Tams are playin' at the Port-O-Call, and the Drifters underneath the Boardwalk"_

The camera shoots through several swamp lands flashing by several mutated animals heading South-West.

"_At the Spanish Galleon and Ol' Fat Jacks, Jukebox playin' and the place is packed"_

The camera flies rapidly out of the swampland over the trees passing several flying vehicles known as Vertibirds, some with some kind of insignia on them, some without.

"_You bet they're dancin' shaggin' on the boulevard."_

The camera returns to the Northern most area of the Boulevard passing a large hotel known as the "Spanish Galleon" and slows down on to watch several men and women dancing to the music. They were Shagging.

"_You know they're dancin' shaggin' on the boulevard"_

The Camera pans right and flies East passing over wetlands and flies past a long working train that is carrying several passengers. Some kind of robotic organism was riding atop the train. Its build was of the build of a human body builder's only metallic plates and exposed inner workings.

"_Got the top down and traffic's slow, Sun Fun Week and we all go"_

In a city that was on a river with a swing bridge known as Socastee, a large group of Securitrons rolled over it chasing a group of Raiders, sirens blazing.

"_Where the girls are sunnin' and a lookin' good"_

The Camera materializes to a large Air Force base called "Fort Bragg" revealing many military grade aircraft. Several of the robotic organisms with the same design as the one atop the train were being manufactured and three were deployed by a vehicle extremely similar to a Vertibird from thirty feet in the air. As they fell several engines on their backs ignited slowing their descent. One of them shook hands with a Power Armored (T-45d) individual.

"_Never met em' but I wish I could"_

The camera moves at high speed towards a small town known as Loris. It narrows in on a small radio that is embedded in the ground playing the same song.

"_And we'd go dancin' shaggin' on the boulevard"_

"_We'd go dancin' shaggin' on the boulevar—"_

CRUNCH!

A black powered armor individual had stepped on it. The camera pans up revealing the full armor of the individual. It was Advanced Power Armor Mk II. He stood there looking around with a plasma rifle. Suddenly a hole appeared with a loud "Clank!" sound through the eye and out his head. The soldier dropped dead. Behind him several yards atop a building was an armored man with a sniper rifle in hand. His armor was similar to the NCR and Desert Ranger armor only the eye pieces were glowing neon blue.

"That was my favorite song," He uttered through his helmet. He hefted his sniper rifle on one should, turned around and walked towards the other end of the building slowly becoming invisible and disappeared.

The Camera materializes at the base of a tall skyscraper on the coast of a northern settlement and pans up until it reaches the roof. Eleven individuals in different kinds of armor stood atop it looking down on the city. The armor ranged from different types of power armor (not Enclave) even new power armor, to armor that has been seen across pre-war America. From behind them the man with the sniper rifle materialized out of nowhere walking between them. Their weapons were also advanced such as energy weapons, heavy weapons, and gauss weaponry. He stopped at the edge of the building.

"What do we got?" He asked

"They're back," A woman's voice said who wore a light-weight version of power armor and incidentally had a scoped Automatic Rifle.

In the city below was a skirmish between several factions. The robotic organisms, super mutants, the black power armored forces, several Vertibirds, Power Armored forces, and also local Raiders.

"Well let's level out our enemies and aid our allies," the new arrival said emotionlessly.

They all ran forward to jump and dive off the building in the night sky. Several gunshots and explosions were going off. That was their exodus, war….

In the distance a large bright blue light filled the horizon and moved rapidly towards the city until engulfed all in view.

**FALLOUT:**

**NEW CAROLINA**

Inspired by Bethesda Softworks

….

"War…..war never changes. In the years after the Great War, humanity had still survived on a thread and was on the brink of extinction."

_A mushroom cloud in the background and human skulls are shown._

"Years later, the world is repopulating. Events were set in motion that gave people hope. From the Vault Dweller's actions, to the Chosen One's actions, to the Warrior's actions, to the Initiates action's, and finally the Couriers actions; these five individuals changed the post-apocalyptic world as it is known."

_Their faces are shown as each one is mentioned._

"Fate it seems doesn't end with their actions. For this story is not of a single person's accomplishments; but of a group's."

_Silhouettes of twelve people are shown._

"When the bombs fell wiping out most of everything in their paths, the Carolina Wasteland was hit uniquely. Some area's were hit extensively while others weren't hit at all. Most of the inhabitants were wiped out leaving only those who had fled to the vaults survive. However, those who did survive created sparse communities or became Raiders."

_There are flashes of images concerning the entire Carolina Wasteland. The Sky wheel, an amusement park, the boulevard, several houses, Carowinds that was in Charlotte, a large airport, a military base, several zoos, a large city with a battleship in the harbor, the long bridge, and the blue Ridge Mountains._

War….war never changes.

_A vault door shaped like a Cog, with the Number 64 is in view. _

"This group of twelve were born in Vault 364, the vault itself named untrue. It is here they'll be trialed and turned into the perfect killing machines….what they do with their skills will determine the fate of the Carolina Wasteland….."

"War….war never changes. Not to the last drop of blood."

….


	2. Part 1 Chapter 1 Undetermined Future

**A/N- This is my first fallout Fanfic. I love this game but I think writing about the lone wanderer is just the same old thing most people do. So this is based around the adventures of characters I made up in the Fallout world. Note the main character is named after my Xbox live gamer tag and Fanfiction's user name. If you like the game but feel the same as I do when it comes to writing the same old story line as before, this is the fanfic for you. It will have a lot of genres in it. Read and Review!**

**A/N (7/21/2011)- I am updating and rewriting some of the characters in this story to match something like a new game but in fanfic form and the title has been changed from Fallout Adventures: Sabor to-**

**Fallout: New Carolina**

**Part 1- Mayhem of a Classified Vault**

**Chapter 1- Undetermined Future**

As far as I knew the world outside of Vault 364 was a wasteland. Or so I was told. I wouldn't know because I've lived in this underground maze since I was born. Anyways I sort of wish I could have seen all that destruction but not killing people. My dad told me a rumor that had spread throughout North America. Up in Capital Wasteland around 10 years ago a group of scientists led by a man James had managed to make a water purifier which was big enough to support all the residents of the entire capital. Man I wish I could see that. But I want to see the outside world period anyways. Every Vault in the Eastern Wasteland has ways of getting information from the outside. Luckily the eighth overseer of Vault 364 allowed outsiders to install communications equipment in an empty room near the Overseer's office. That was in 2200.

_In 2277 a man named James along with a scientist whose name was Dr Li lead a team of scientists continued a project that was left unattended for 19 years. The project was known as Project Purity, a project that would purify D.C.'s waters. James couldn't even begin again because James was looking for a way to make the project a success by finding something called a G.E.C.K and was trapped in a Vault. But lucky for him his own son, James Jr., exited Vault 101 to find his father. After he saved his father together they contacted Dr Li and her fellow scientists and continued their work. But Enclave wanted to take possession of the project. In an attempt to save his son and the scientists he trapped himself and the colonel of the Enclave in the Purity chamber and released an enormous amount of radiation. This killed him but knocked the colonel unconscious who was saved by his troops. James Jr. and the scientists managed to escape and seek help from the Brotherhood of Steel. James Jr. then went through a lot to acquire the one thing that can make his fathers Project a success, the G.E.C.K. The only problem was that it was located deep within Raven Rock, Enclave's headquarters for D.C. After convincing the real leader of the Enclave, President Eden who is A.I, to blow up Raven Rock he returned to the Brotherhood of Steel's headquarters. It was the year 2278 when he enlisted the help of Lyon's Pride and the newly rebooted giant Robot, Liberty Prime. Together they fought through Super Mutants and Enclave toward the Jefferson Memorial which was where the project remained. James and Sarah Lyons proceeded inside to fight the rest of the Enclave. James stopped Project Purity from exploding and activated it. He and Sarah fell unconscious as Project Purity finally began doing its job. From then on James became the Hero of Capital Wasteland, known as the Lone Wanderer. Taking on his new status James and his dog continued their lives helping the Brotherhood of Steel defeat the Enclave and made a living for themselves as Wanderers doing what they wanted. That was the story we were told by the Overseer._

…

I was born in 2068 along with twenty other children. We were the only children for ten years. I remember my past easily. My name is Sabor and my story begins now.

Age Ten-

I woke up in my room. The room was like any other bedroom in Vault 364, small and cramped. There were steel wires running across the ceiling connected to the lights. All lights in the Vault were meant to give our bodies Vitamin C. I learned that in school. There was a window that allowed you to look out in the vault hall with a module on the side that lets you tint the window any color you wanted it. Everywhere you looked was some kind of display of how much technology was up to date. I got up looking around my room. I had a desk with a lamp near the window. I usually used it for my homework or drawing. I had a dresser that held my spare clothes which consisted of nothing but Vault clothes and a clothes-hamper next to it. Vault dwellers wear a blue jumpsuit with their Vault number on the back. We also wear a pair of boots. Aside from that we wore grey undershirts and pants called vault pants.

Other than my desk and dresser I had a Medical Kit hanging on the wall. Why? All rooms within Vault Living Quarters had them in every room. I had a shelf with a Bible on it. I also had a nightstand next to my bed with a lamp and an alarm clock on it. I looked over at the alarm clock. It was 8:00 in the morning. Like I knew what morning looked like? I leaned up and hung my legs over the side of my bed. I remembered something. Today was my Tenth Birthday. I grinned as I got up and walked over to my dresser. I had the window shades closed and my door was closed so I took off my undershirt and pajama pants then threw them in the hamper. I put on a pair of vault pants and an undershirt then slipped my vault suit on. As I zipped it up with one hand I pulled a pair of socks out my top drawer. As I slipped them on I noticed my ceiling light was a little dim.

"Dex could fix it," I said putting my boots on and tying them. Dex was the Vaults chief technician. I got up and stretched. What a great day for him. I wonder what I'm getting. I walked over to my door and pressed the access button. It slid open revealing a living room. There were three doors. One led to my parent's room, another was the bathroom, and the last was the Vault Hall. Where were my parents?

"Mom?" I asked yelling out, "Dad?" No answer. So I decided to look in their bedroom. No one. "Mom?" I asked again, "Dad?" No answer.

They weren't at work at this time of day were they? My Father was a Doctor and a Scientist and my mother was also a scientist but they never left our quarters without telling me. I looked around for some clue of my parent's whereabouts. Then I saw it. On the glass coffee table was a single paper. I picked it up and sat on the couch reading it. It was my mothers handwriting.

_Dear Sabor,_

_Happy Birthday son! Your father and I are in the commons room helping out with Mr. Green cooking. Stay in our quarters. Radroaches have been getting in again somehow. Your father will be there in a little if you're awake._

_ Love You,_

_ Mom_

So that's where they went. I folded the paper and walked in the bathroom. I brushed my teeth and used the bathroom. As I walked out the bathroom door the vault hall door opened up. A tall muscular man stood there. He had a white lab coat with the Vault number on the back of it. He had blue pants and boots on as well. Of course he had a black device that was cuffed around his arm which had a huge screen and three buttons. It was the Pip-boy 3000, a gadget with a lot of memory that all Vault-dwellers have. The man had dark brown hair and light brown eyes as well. He was my dad.

"Brushing your teeth?" He asked smiling pleased.

"Yes sir," I said politely.

"That's a good habit," Dad said seeming honest, "I'm glad you picked up on that."

"I'm learning from the best!" I said truthfully. Or at least I thought my parents were.

Dad chuckled. "Come on," he said, "Your mother's waiting on us."

I followed my dad out our quarters and down the vault hall. We passed my bedroom window and kept walking. We walked passed many doors and halls then walked down one that was a stair way to a lower level. We kept walking taking three different halls and finally stopped at a wide window which the blinds were closed. The metal door was closed as well. Dad opened it as I stood in front of it. Suddenly a bright flash and what sounded like an explosion erupted.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY SABOR!" what sounded like half the entire Vault.

I looked around the commons area. It was the happiest sight I've ever seen. My mother was there who had a beautiful face. She was tall, slim, and had light brown eyes and silky light brown hair. My friends were there as well. They looked happy as well. There were adults who were family friends there as well and of course the Vaults Overseer, Franklin Summers.

"Happy birthday Sabor!" A girl who was pretty in my opinion said. She had dark blonde hair and sky blue eyes. She gave me a hug as I was still shocked. After all she was one of my best friends.

"Uh, Thank you Lauren," I said shocked. I was not expecting this. A birthday party thrown for me?

"Happy birthday dude!" a blonde headed boy said. It was Jordyn who hung out with us like every other friend.

"Thanks man," I said truthfully. My friends were all wishing my a happy birthday when my mother and a Mister Handy, R8S (Rates) calmed them all down.

"Settle down everyone," R8S said, "It's time for cake!"

Everyone settled down. I had to endure the embarrassment by everyone singing happy birthday to me. We ate and then it was my favorite time of a birthday party. What 10 year old kid wouldn't like presents?

I got a baseball bat with a ball and mitt, some vault credits (vault money), and a few books. "Sabor," Dad said holding something behind his back, "You're now 10 years old. So now you are old enough to have a Pip-boy." He held the Pip-boy out to me.

"Thanks Dad," I said slipping it on my right arm.

"This is the 3000 model 3.6 version," Dad said intelligently, "Pip-boy's expand as you grow up. It has a one hundred gigabyte memory span, can download through USB, wireless, and record. It also shows your bodily health like blood pressure, heart rate, and how healthy your body is. It will also display your total, how would you say, cleverness in things that is under scientific law (the perks & skills in the game). It also has an automated system where it can pick up wave signals, adapt to what you are wearing, and can tell the weight and what you're carrying. Oh and it comes with a light and can withstand a hit of 1000 tons."

I could barely keep up with what he said but it sunk in. After the party my dad led me down on the lowest level and the hardest place to remember in the Vault. It was a place what I and my friend's parents' called the "Survival Hall." I didn't know about it of course until now.

It was located ten levels under the commons room through a maze of unused Vault halls. The only problem was that you needed a passcode to access the tenth level. Like I said my parents and friends parents were the only ones who knew the passcode. Other than them we were told the passcode each week.

I looked at this large hangar like room. It was huge and full of nothing but from what I could see a lot of things. Mom was sitting at a table that had a computer console on it. The place was well organized. It had around forty lockers that were separated from male and female. There was machinery located near it all and tables set near each other. That was only the first corner of the place.

"Welcome to the Survival Hall son," Dad said pleasantly, "Your mother and I set up this place with the help of Zane and Donny."

Zane was chief of security and Donny was the vaults head technical officer. They were close family friends and they often helped my father out.

"But dad is this legal?" I asked. It seemed like it was a huge secret and the overseer probably didn't know about it.

"No Sabor," Dad said, "the overseer is arrogant and does not believe teaching survival in school is important. He thinks the Vault is incapable of being broken into."

"But is it?" I asked unsure. I hoped not.

"Yes it is capable of being broke into." Dad said seeming troubled, "that's why a few residents of the Vault decided to secretly set up a school that teaches survival."

"Survival?" I asked confused, "Why would we need to learn to survive in the vault?"

"Just as a precaution." Dad said sounding secretly.

I wasn't sure why Dad wasn't telling the entire truth. What was spooking him? But I couldn't ask that. I felt uneasy about this whole situation. My mother sensed my worries.

"Don't worry about anything Sabor," Mom said, "It's just something we do in case you want to leave the vault. There's no danger."

Now I can't say I believed her but I can tell she was trying to reassure me. I decided not to allow myself to dwell on the part about the Vault being broken into. What ever I was going to learn here it would be worth it.

….

Age 16-

For the last six years I've been working with everyone in the Vault who agreed with my parents' ideals. We worked in secret due to the overseer's constant defiance in believing my father's theory about the vault capable of being broken into. There were twenty kids in the program. I was the oldest out of us all and probably the most skilled when it came to anything we did. The others had skills too but not like me. Scratch that I lied. I'm the only boy that has good skills. Lauren is the other person who can match me in anything. She is like my counterpart but a different gender. I can't help but notice the fact she's gotten more beautiful too.

What we learn in this secret survival school is pretty cool. Of course regular school takes place first. Luckily our teacher was teaching us as well in the secret survival school. He often made effort to keep the overseer from snooping around. There were so many people in on this survival school. I began to wonder if we twenty kids were actually doing this for a purpose. It was almost like the vault was being split into two groups. The Overseer and the Vault dwellers who blindly followed his ideals and the rest of us, the survivalists. I only hoped that this didn't turn nasty when we survivalists are found out. It was one of the lessons we learned in one of the classes, "Expect anything, Prepare before the unexpected happens."

I remembered that quote easily. The more I thought about it the more I wondered if the reason my father taught us the quote, is the reason he thinks that Vault 364 will be broken into. So how did we, the survivalists, prepare ourselves? We worked hard to learn as much as we can about what we could possibly be facing anywhere; outside, in the vault, anywhere.

My mother and father broke down our lessons by a system called S.P.E.C.I.A.L. We call it "Special" for short. I remember every lesson like it was nothing. Our very first lesson after we memorized the quote was learning everything possible about "Special."

_Flashback to age 10:_

_I was sitting in a classroom that fitted me and the other nineteen kid as well as my parents, my friends' parents (Jordyn's and Lauren's parents), Zane the chief officer, Dex a vault technician, our teacher whose name is Jerry, and Donny the head technical officer. There were twenty vault tech educational desks/seats that "mysteriously disappeared" out the vault educational storage units. We each sat in designated seats by assigned name (As we matured and became skillful we sat in accordance to our skills. People who were more skilled sat further back, while people with less skill sat closer to the front.) There was a projector and screen ready for visual representations._

"_Okay," mom said looking at us all, "Before we get into practice sessions with anything we'll be teaching you all about S.P.E.C.I.A.L or 'special' for short."_

_I listened attentively. I guess the others did as well but I was always on the learning curve for some reason. Lauren kept eyeing me which was kind of weird. I didn't say a thing I just paid attention to my mother._

"_Special is a set of terms that define skills that can be learned in this program," Mom said intelligently. "S stands for Strength, P stands for Perception, E stands for Endurance, C stands for Charisma, I stands for Intelligence, A stands for Agility and L stands for Luck. Each word governs a set of skills. The only exception is Luck; it governs no skills at all. It just determines how lucky you are."_

_Amazingly I had copied this all down without realizing it. I looked down and read what I wrote. But my mother said something else._

"_We have downloaded the 'special' systematic program into your Pipboy's," Dad said intelligently, "It is broken down into several skill traits. Look at your Pipboy menu under skills at the chart."_

_We all looked at them. It was all in a chart of systematic definitions:_

_Combative skills-_

_Heavy Weapons_

_Energy Weapons_

_Explosives_

_Melee Weapons_

_Light Weapons_

_Sidearms_

_Unarmed_

_Passive skills-_

_Barter_

_Persuasion_

_Speech_

_Conversation_

_Authority_

_Stealth Skills-_

_Lockpicking_

_Acrobatics_

_Stealthmoving_

_Trapping_

_Diversion_

_Contemporary Science skills-_

_Mechanics and Repair_

_Artificial Technology_

_Medical_

_Armoring_

_Environmental Science skills-_

_Geological Botany_

_Entomology_

_Herpetology_

_Mammalogy_

_Marine Science_

"_As you can see," Dad said, "There are numbers beside every skill definition. They represent your skill experience in that field. The numbers are probably below 5 on each one. You haven't had practice in any of these skills yet."_

_I looked at mine. All were at four. Whoa that's cool._

_Donny took over from where my dad left off. "Each skill is governed by one of the 'Special' traits, He said in an intelligent tone. "For Strength the skills are Unarmed, and Melee Weapons. For Perception there are Heavy Weapons, Energy Weapons, Rifles, light weapons, and Sidearms. Endurance is all about Armoring and Medical. Charisma governs Barter, Persuasion, Speech, Conversation, and Authority. For Intelligence there are a lot of skills which happen to be all science fields with the exception of Armoring and Medical. Trapping, Diversion, Explosives, and Lockpicking are all part of Intelligence as well. Agility governs Acrobatics and Stealthmoving."_

"_You're 'special' traits work the same," Mom said, "The skill level of each definition is on a scale from one to ten. Basically the higher your skill level, the higher the scale number in your Pipboy."_

…_._

_Flash back to Age 14_

_By this time everyone in survival school has been through quite a lot. We've been going through a lot of lessons. Our skills in certain areas have increased. We can't increase our skills by much though because there is little to practice with and to learn with but we try. I looked at the 'special skills that were listed in a chart on my Pipboy. At the moment they were all at three._

_We were in the training room at a shooting range. We were shooting targets with N99 10mm pistols. I was used to the sound by now. Zane, the chief of security, always had us shoot them at the targets. I shot pretty accurately but there was one kid whom shot the target so accurately it made me try harder. His name was Zackary. Sidearms are a specialty of his. When I finished I took the clip out and walked over to the quarter master and returned my pistol._

"_Good shootin' today?" The quartermaster asked kindly taking the pistol and placing it on a gun rack._

"_Yeah," I said looking back at the other students, "I got nine 10 points and two 5 points."_

"_Ooh that's high," The quartermaster said impressed, "Anyone one here who can beat you besides Zack?"_

"_I can," A voice said from behind us. It was Lauren; the girl is was in love-"cough" interested in. We were always going back and forward competitively but jokily as well._

"_You wish," I said smirking while leaning on the wall and folding my arms, "You've still gotta beat my score from what? Two Years ago?"_

"_Still a smart ass," Lauren said grinning and taking a clip out her M99. She placed it on the quartermasters table. _

"_You've got an attitude," I shot back in the same tone. _

"_And?" She asked innocently. She folded her arms and leaned back slightly like she had attitude._

"_Not sure," I said jokily, "But it's funny when you have that attitude. It makes the others scared of you."_

"_Including you," Lauren said smiling._

"_When a Radroach turns human," I said laid back, "I think I'm the only one who isn't scared of you at any point and time. Attitude is something I like in a girl." The last sentence just slipped out. She blushed a bit._

"_Hey you two," Zane said from over near the door, "Now's not the time to be flirting. It's Mechanic and Repair class time. Move it!"_

"_We weren't flirting!" Me and Lauren said at the same time blushing slightly._

"_Uh-huh," Jordyn said casually as he walked by in front of us, "And I'm a two headed Brahmin."_

_We both gave him the evil eye. "Chill guys," Jordyn said giving his gun to the quartermaster, "I'm just messing with you. Sheesh, you two are so much alike it isn't funny."_

_So far in classes we learn how to picklock locked things, disarm explosives (mostly mines), and repairing guns. We also learned a few things with a computer from Dad and Donny. It was different ways of hacking. Some point along the way we learned about some of the environmental sciences._

_..._

Flash back over.

…..

I sat here on my bed, in my room, dressed and ready to go to school. Not Survival school this time, regular school. The one everyone knows about, the one that is not kept secret from the Overseer. I looked out my window to see the Vault residents walking down the hallway cheerfully and without worry. Some were adults going to work or going to the Vault Market and kids were heading to school. I looked back at the floor contently. The Vault was so far, still at peace. I looked up at the Vault's schedule clock. It was 7:30 in the morning.

I stood up walked over to my window module and pressed 'close' and blinds folded from the left side to block any view out the room or in. I walked over to my desk and picked up my backpack. Mom and Dad had already gone to their work places. So I grabbed my lunch for the day and walked towards our residential door. Locks flipped on the right side and the door slid with the sound of an air pressure system. I walked down a maze of Vault residential corridors. I passed people, people, and guess what? More people. Every now and then I'd pass a Type II Mister Handy.

Type II Mister Handy's are large spherical robots with three eyes and three limbs. They stay hover borne by a jet propulsion system that shot air out. This propulsion system pointed downward to the ground. The propulsion air jets shot just enough air to where the robots three arms hung a foot off the ground. On the top half of the sphere-like pod was three photo-optic eyes that pointed triangularly away from each other. Directly below the photo optic eyes were the arms that had joints for movement. On the end of each arm was a different accessory. One arm had a blow torch that could be used as a flame thrower, one had a regular robotic hand with a mainframe plug, and the last had a saw blade. They were intelligent; they spoke in a friendly tone of a twenty year old man a hundred years ago. The cool thing I liked about Mister Handy's is that they can make a glass of water from the air particles and purify it to clean water and they had humor emitters.

I walked in a chamber that had four balconies on each side of the chamber stacked above each other. You could see a circular window on the fourth floor over looking the chamber. That was the overseer's office. I was on the lowest floor at the moment. The Educational level was on the floor just below the Overseer's office floor. I walked across the chamber to the other side. As I did the place was full of people. Directly across from the Overseer's office on the same floor I was one was a hall with a large double door at the end. Two Vault Security Officers stood there with guns and batons. Their uniform was the vault jumpsuit with black body armor and face shields.

I continued across and walked down another hall that had an elevator. I took the elevator up and exited right after two Type II Mister Handy's hovered by in the same direction discussing issues with the Vault Power system. I followed behind them until they went the opposite direction of across the walkway in the large chamber I was going in. Jordyn met up with me as I walked towards the area under the overseer's office.

"Yo Sabor," Jordyn asked cheerfully.

"What's up?" I asked as we entered the only hall to go in at the moment.

"Ready for that G.O.A.T Exam today?" Jordyn asked.

"The Generalized Occupational Aptitude Test?" I asked dully, "Not really. I'd rather go let a Mister Handy torch me."

"Hey," Jordyn said as we walked down another hall, "We all don't want to take this thing but let's get it over with."

"I hear that bro," I said agreeing with him. We turned the corner to see Lauren, a blonde headed girl named Jessica, and a girl dark haired girl named Brooke being surrounded by a group of boys. It was the "Vault Breakers," a gang of teenagers my age that caused trouble all the time. So far I was the only one who stood up to them. Well and I could back myself up when I did.

There were about five or six of these guys. Just seeing them annoyed me, partly because they all are stuck up and do what ever they wanted. Another part was picking on my friends. And the last part? Well, I'll let you find out yourself.

"Hey Lauren," The leader asked in a smug but tyrant tone, "Let's skip class and go down to the unused vault halls to have some fun."

"I wouldn't do that with you if I was dying on the spot," Lauren said fuming.

"Oooh," The gang members teased while echoing in the hall.

I smirked as Jordyn whispered something to me. "These guys are assholes," He whispered, "Why don't they just leave everyone alone." I did hear Jordyn but I was paying attention to Lauren. I liked the way she told these teenagers off. It reminded me of when I do it.

"That's a burn Jake," One of the other gang members said.

The leader, Jake, didn't look to happy about being dissed like that. "Now listen here bitch," He said grabbing Lauren's arm menacingly, "You'll do as I say."

"Ouch!" Lauren said in pain, "Stop! Jake!"

"What are you gonna do about it?" Jake demanded trying to pull her away.

There was an unnatural silence there…..

I snapped. Before I knew it I was standing between them both with my arm clutching a pressure point on Jake's arm.

"I think," I said with a protective attitude, "The lady said to stop." I wasn't sure what came over me but Jake didn't look enthused to see me. The closest gang member to my right came at me. With my free hand I punched the kid in the nose. The kid was knocked back on his butt with shock and an "oof."

I squeezed Jake's pressure point harder. "Now," I said in a calm tone, "Are we going to be civilized or are we going to get rough? Your call Jake."

…

Lauren's point of view-

Jake had me by the arm. I knew what was coming. He was going to try the most unforgiving thing a guy could do….rape me. His hand was clutching my arm tightly hurting me.

"Ouch!" I said in pain, "Stop! Jake!" It was hurting my arm. I felt like Jake was going to break it.

"What are you gonna do about it?" Jake demanded trying to pull me away. I knew I couldn't stop him. He was strong. Stronger than I was at least. Jake was going to have his way one way or another. I couldn't stop him. But why did it feel like there was a silence. Not one of those awkward silences. I'm talking about one of those silences when hell was about to break loose.

Then out of nowhere. A taller person than me was standing between me and Jake back turned to me and their left hand clutched Jake's arm in a pressure hold. It was then I realized who my savior was. It was the boy I admired most of all, Sabor Warren.

"I think," He said in a caring tone that was hidden by annoyance, "the lady said to stop."

Lady? Sabor was calling me a lady now? He usually called me by my name or "girl" like the other boys do. I couldn't help it. I blushed horribly.

One of Jake's gang members went at Sabor with the intention of pulling him off Jake's arm but Sabor decked the kid in the face causing him to stumble backwards and land on his butt. Sabor must have squeezed Jake's pressure point a little harder because Jake loosened his grip on mine.

"Now," Sabor said in a calm tone, "Are we going to be civilized or are we going to get rough? Your call Jake."

Jake looked at Sabor with extreme hate. He let go of my arm and went to punch Sabor with his free arm. Sabor caught Jake's fist like a baseball and slammed it to the side. He then quickly pushed Jake diagonally up with both hands at his chest. Jake went flying backwards and hit a metal pillar. Jake's friends came at Sabor with full force. Sabor grabbed two by the wrists and spun them around and into a third kid and decked the last kid in the gut. The kid fell gasping for air.

"You chose the wrong option," Sabor said annoyed. Whoa, did Sabor just take down all of them single handily? That's one reason why I admire him.

"Yeah," Jake said putting on the tough guy act, "You think you can beat us all?"

Sabor laughed a bit. "I just did," He said smugly, "Up for round two? By the fifth you will all end up in the Vault's infirmary. Or maybe it will be the third. Your choice, not mine."

Then the school bell rang. It was then I remembered that all students taking the Vaults G.O.A.T Exam had to report to the Vault Infirmary. Sabor continued with his smart mouth when it came to people he disliked.

"Check in time," He said pleasantly, "Want to go there now?"

Jake bit his lower lip in anger. But his judgment saved him the embarrassment of another beating. "You're lucky you have school kid," He said getting up, "Come on boys. These brats aren't worth our time." He and his gang disappeared down the hall.

Sabor turned to me with a look in his eye's I've never seen before. His eyes were Caramel Brown that looked amber if you looked at them in the light. They were full of relief and passion. "Are you alright?" He asked me. (Note: Sabor is blushing slightly)

"Yeah," I said shakily. Then something broke both of our attention.

"Everyone report to the Infirmary." Jerry the class teacher said, "It is mandatory that all who are taking G.O.A.T have a medical check up by the Doctors before taking it."

We all followed Jerry to the infirmary which was one floor below. Sabor's mother and father greeted us all at the waiting room. "Girls follow me," Mrs. Warren announced, "Your check-ups will be in check-up room B."

"All boys," Mr. Warren said, "Your check ups are in check-up room A."

We girls followed Ms. Warren to a room down the hall. I was third. At the end of my check up Mrs. Warren was standing behind a medical curtain as I slipped my clothes back on. This check up was on everything medical.

I sat on a recovery bed as Mrs. Warren was filling out something on a clipboard. "Well Lauren," Mrs. Warren said contently, "You don't have to worry about any health issues. You are completely healthy."

"Okay Doctor Warren," I responded, "I wonder if Sabor will be okay." I was actually hoping so. He was by far the schools number one student but it looked like he had issues with his chest. He was always cleaving like his heart was hearting.

Mrs. Warren gave me a thoughtful look and smiled. "I'm pretty sure he is healthy Lauren," She said thoughtfully, "now, I've got seven other girls to check up. We can talk later okay?"

"Okay," I said understandably. I still couldn't shake the fact she was hiding something from me about him. It was almost disturbing. But then again, she is his mother.

…...

Sabor's Point of View-

I was the last boy to have the medical check-up. I was almost done now. Dad was checking my ears then moved on to an eye exam. "Well," Dad said marking down things on a piece of paper, "So far so good son. Now let's see how the ticker is doing."

I thought about that. My heart has been giving me a bit of a problem lately, like it was aching. "Well dad," I said like it was a subject I didn't want to talk about, "lately I've been feeling a bit weak for a little bit as my heart hurts a bit. Other times I feel one hundred percent fine."

Dad looked at me concerned. "What do you mean by hurting?" He asked concerned, "throbbing, sharp pain, or sinking pain?"

"I don't know," I said truthfully, "I'm starting to wonder if it's my imagination dad. It only happens when I'm in the Main Chamber or around Lauren."

"Ah," Dad said sounding slightly amused, "It's nothing to worry about Sabor. You're a perfectly healthy sixteen year old boy. You'll understand that feeling sooner or later."

I pondered what Dad meant but he looked just as uneasy as I felt. He didn't show it but I knew, somehow he was keeping something from me. "Go on Sabor," Dad said politely, "The other kids are all ready to take the G.O.A.T Exam."

"Okay," I said unsurely. I left out looking at him with a troubled expression on his face looking at his computer.

I met up with my friends, all fourteen of them. Lauren looked at me like she was expecting me to do something. When we entered the classroom a floor above, we sat at desks. The desks were like they were set in the same manner as the one's we use in the survival area.

"Your G.O.A.T Exam will take place in written form in the exam packet," Jerry said informingly, "You may begin."

….

It was probably two hours later when we were all done with the G.O.A.T Exam and good riddance. I thought I'd never get done with that stupid thing. After lunch our results came in and posted on a sheet of paper by the door.

_Generalized Occupation Aptitude Test_

_Exam_

_Results_

_Jordyn Anders- Security Officer_

_Thomas Akins- Chef_

_Brooke Coles- Fashion Designer_

_Tammy Carson- Cleaner_

_Kaitlyn Edge- Hair Stylist_

_Austin Farris- Barber_

_Johnnathan Green- Robotic Engineer_

_Ashton Gore- Repairman_

_Jamie Hardee- Educational instructor_

_Jessica Harris- Preschool Teacher_

_Jared Kellen- Educational Instructor_

_Angela Lorie- Educational Instructor_

_Lauren Masters- Management_

_Zack Miles- Quartermaster_

_Matthew Pearson- Repairman_

_Eric Ridgely- Security Officer_

_Erika Samson- Pedicurist/Manicurist_

_Christina Sanders- Preschool Teacher_

_Tyanna Tess- Fashion Designer_

_Jade Veers- Hair Stylist_

_Sabor Warren- Undetermined_

I looked at my name and what my occupational career would be. I expected a Security Officer, Chef, Quartermaster, anything! But…undetermined? What did that mean?

I looked at Jordyn who looked back at me with the same perplexed expression. Lauren looked at me with the same expression looking distraught about it.

"Sabor," Jerry said across the room. I looked at him quizzically. "The overseer wants to see you in his office, now."

…..

**That's it for this chapter!**

**A/N- So how was it? Just go along with everything. I promise it'll all make sense soon! Thank you! Please review and I'll post the next as soon as possible.**


	3. Mystery of three Delinquents

**The second chapter of part one is here. If you're reading this then I know you're wondering why I still have the setting in the vault and its number. Trust me that question will be answered soon. Read and Review please, don't care if they are good or bad. I've wrote a lot of Fanfics but Fallout is my favorite so far. **

Part 1- Mayhem of a Classified Vault

Chapter 2-Mystery of Three Delinquents

"_Undetermined, undetermined, undetermined, undetermined"_

These words raced through my thoughts at mock two. What does undetermined even mean? Undetermined was a word I knew of course. The answer was simple and I knew it. It may have been simple but it didn't change the fact that I absolutely did not like the answer. Why did this answer have to be so meaningful?

Over the years I have felt…different from the other students in the survival class. I felt out of place but skillful at the same time. What was I? Undetermined has never happened before. It is only been posted in the Occupational Manual for references, it was never actually been used as a title for someone. My legs felt like cement. I was hard to move. I looked at Jordyn again and he could see the shocked and frightened emotions I was having. I couldn't help it. He gave me an unsure look.

I looked at Lauren who didn't give me a good look I'd like to take a picture of. She looked just as frightened as I was. "Go on," She whispered quietly.

I obeyed and slowly made my way to the elevator, heart sinking but pumping blood angrily every step. _Undetermined_. I was Undetermined. I was easily one of the smartest kids school but I was undetermined. Why? Why would I be undetermined? Something was going on. Was this a prank? A sick joke Jake came up with? If it was I would beat the living daylights out of him. But I couldn't dwell on beating Jake up, I had to walk, I had to face my fears.

Incase you are wondering what "undetermined" means; it means that you are either too good or too bad at the G.O.A.T Exam and things will happen. If you are too good then the Vault Overseer will most likely see you as a threat. If you are too bad, well…..let's just say no one will know where you are. It was my dad who told me this. I believe him and that's why my trust in the Overseer has remained shaken. I couldn't help it. It was like life or death.

Before I knew it I was on the Overseer's Office floor. There were two security officers outside the overseer's office door. But guess what? Right across the hall was the Vault Detention Center. I could see through the bullet proof window. There was an office and two cells in the back. I looked back at the overseer's office door where one of the officers eyed me as if I was doing something wrong. I gulped slightly frightened.

"Do you have an appointment?" The officer asked coldly, "If you don't, leave immediately." I had to admit, this guy was intimidating. Sure I was tough, but I was only a kid. I also had a problem with authority.

"And if I don't leave?" I asked slightly annoyed with this officer already.

"I will detain you," The officer said coldly. He was about to move at me when someone interrupted.

"Hey!" Someone shouted. All three of us looked to our right. It was Zane, the head Security officer, "What's going on here?"

"Uh this kid is trying to enter the Overseer's office without an appointment sir," The officer said slightly frightened.

"Are you stupid or something?" Zane demanded, "He's with me." _Thank you Zane! _I thought relieved.

"Oh sorry sir," The officer said realizing his mistake.

"Yeah well whatever," Zane said clearly annoyed, "Go guard the balcony or something. Move it. Now!"

The officers hurried off and when they were gone Zane grinned at me. "It's pretty awesome to have a friend who's the chief of security isn't it?" He asked walking up to me.

"Yes it is," I said immediately relieved.

Zane's humorous expression changed to concern. He looked at me like he was debating on something. "I hear you're undetermined," He asked sounding troubled.

"Yeah," I responded nervously, "And I still remember what dad told me." And I hoped he was joking or something because I didn't want to be a threat to the Overseer or disappear from the Vault.

Zane picked up on my uneasiness. "Don't worry bud," he said defensively, "The Overseer won't touch you. Not if I have to say anything about it."

"Okay," I said a little more confidently. Zane walked over to a communication module and pressed a button.

"Overseer," Zane said, "This is Officer Zane. I have Sabor Warren with me. He said you wanted to see him sir?"

There was a slight static then someone spoke through the speaker. "Yes," the voice said, "both of you come on in."

Zane gave a troubled look and released the button. "Both of us?" Zane asked himself sounding confused. To tell you the truth, so was I. Zane pressed a button on a panel beside the door causing the door to slide open. I followed behind Zane who kept in front of me like he was a body guard.

The door behind me slid shut. The Overseer's office was the size of a Residential Suite. It looked large and spacious. There was a desk in front of the window large window and a set of computer consoles, mainframes, and screens all around the room. Behind the desk sitting in a padded chair was an old Caucasian man with a kind expression, though I learned that kind appearances weren't always a good thing.

"Welcome Mr. Warren," The Overseer said in a business-like tone, "please have a seat." He gestured to a seat in front of his desk, the one next to me. I sat down trying to keep my cool as Zane stood behind me.

"So," The Overseer said cheerfully, "I've received your score on the Generalized Occupation Aptitude Test Exam. And I must say it was astounding."

"Uh thank you sir," I said kind of, sort of, honored in a weird way.

"I called you in here for a good reason," the Overseer said leaning back in his chair and his fingers crossing with the others on his opposite hand.

"What might that be sir?" I asked mannerly. Although I didn't trust this guy with any fiber of my being, I decided to stay on his good side, or try to. I couldn't shake the feeling he was trying to get on my good side too. What did he have to gain? Did he know something about our organization? I'd have to lead him away from that subject.

"Well," The Overseer said sighing, "Of course you know your score was undetermined. I must say you made a perfect one thousand out of one thousand. And that's high for a youngin' like yourself."

"Thank you sir," I said mannerly.

"You didn't lack anything in any occupational field," The Overseer said, "And you showed interest in everything listed on the paper."

I nodded slightly. _Yeah right. Like I'd wanna be a hair stylist or touch peoples toe nails._

"So therefore," The Overseer said sounding happy, "You are entitled to work under any career you wish, except for my job of course."

Did he just say that? No way. This was astounding; the overseer had basically told him that I could have any job I wanted. That just made my day a whole lot better. But like always, something didn't feel right about all of this. What was the Overseer trying to do? It felt like he was trying to bribe me or something.

"Okay," The Overseer said sounding like business was just beginning, "I know you might be uncomfortable with this but I need to know as the Overseer. Do you know of any organization that will put the safety of the Vault in Jeopardy?"

Bingo. I knew he'd ask about something like this. So he was suspicious. _Easy Sabor, just think of something to say. Don't give our organization away. _I acted like I was thinking on something. Then the answer came to me. _Jake._

"Well," I said lightly, "As far as organizations go I don't think there is any such thing. But there is a gang, if that's what you'd call'um running around causing trouble."

"Gang?" The Overseer said sounding intrigued. _Yes! He bought it._

"Yeah the uh," I said like I was trying to recall their names, "Darn what did they call themselves? Oh yeah! The Vault Breakers."

"Vault Breakers?" The Overseer asked.

"Yeah," I said like it was common knowledge, "Jake Shulley is the supposed leader of the whole gang."

"Oh," The Overseer said like I was telling the truth, "Thank you Mr. Warren. That will be all my friend."

"No problem sir," I said getting up, "I'll see you around." I left out of his office with the Overseer looking pleased with himself but was typing on his computer console. I knew the Overseer had fallen for my lie. But truth be told, some one had to do something about Jake and his little gang before someone, namely Lauren, got hurt. I guess I was that someone. Well, I'm the someone who told another someone with power about a certain someone's gang. So that someone who told the someone with power about the someone's gang won't be found out about. Still following me here? Yes? Well, if not just go with it.

"Whew that was close," Zane said once we were down towards the balcony, "Nice work with the Vault Breakers gang idea. Don't forget though, today lessons are on armor making."

"Okay," I said as I got to the elevator.

"See you later bud," Zane said nodding walking down the hall. I responded with a simple "see ya" before he got too far. I pressed the elevator button that made it go to the lowest floor. As I rode down I leaned on the opposite side of from the door arms crossed thinking about a few things that occurred to me.

Why did the Overseer want so hard to keep everyone thinking the Vault couldn't be broken into? Why did he want to stamp out any organization that included teaching us kids how to defend ourselves? It made me want to know a lot of things. I started trying to figure this all out the best I could. That was me; I always tried to learn things that had something to do with whatever I wanted to know. I had a full proof plan, even though it was the stupidest thing I could do. Break into the Overseer's office, hack his computer, and find out myself. That was the only place the old man could hide anything like important like that.

I'd have to do it tonight. But could I do it alone? That was one question I needed to find an answer to. The elevator door opened and three Vault dwellers were waiting. I walked out with my arms still folded. I made my way through a large crowd of Vault dwellers across the main chamber and into the maze of Residential Suites. I'd have to say, it takes thirty minutes to get to my home. That's how big this Vault was. I stood outside my window and leaned on the wall. Where I was it was like the hall had formed into a room or something. It was just a wider space for those who lived where I did, on the end of this Vault Residential Hall. There were three other kids from my class that lived in this particular area, Jordyn, Lauren, and Jessica.

I could hear giggling coming down the hall. It was Jessica who was probably giggling at one of Jordyn's jokes. That was Jordyn for you, annoying sometimes but funny as heck. I guess that's why we're friends. I could get along with just about anybody I met. Well, if you aren't a Vault Breaker.

"Really?" I heard Jessica say blushing madly, "You told him that?" Oh yeah, you could tell she had a crush on him. Jordyn was oblivious to this but the ironic part is…he has a crush on her. I guess I haven't told either of them the other's feelings because one I was bound by friendship not to tell Jessica about Jordyn's feelings and two….well let's just say it's funny to see Jordyn make a fool out of himself around her. That plan works.

I heard a door open. I looked to my left to see Lauren coming out of her home. She looked at me with relief. "So how did it go?" She asked walking over and leaning on the same wall I was leaning on, beside me.

"The old man tried to find out about some random thing about an organization," I said as Jordyn and Jessica walked up. We couldn't speak of it in the halls. There were just too many ears around that probably reported back to the Overseer himself.

"You mean that?" Jordyn asked emphasizing 'that.'

"Yeah," I said twitching my brow, "I told him about Jake and his crew." I smiled mischievously. Jordyn nodded and began laughing. They all knew what I was doing. The Jake thingy was just winging it when the time came.

"Nice," Jordyn said knuckle bumping my fist.

"You told him about the Breakers?" Lauren asked in slight disbelief but on the verge of laughter. Jessica was laughing as it was.

"I bet they're gonna be mad," Jessica said regaining her composure.

"Either that or come looking for me," I said grinning.

"Oh we all know Jake will beat you up Sabor," Jordyn said sarcastically, "I mean the dude only lost when he had five or six people with him."

I had to laugh at that. Jordyn had a way with words sometimes. He even got Lauren and Jessica to laugh.

"Come on," Jordyn said, "Up for messing with a few of the Breakers?" He gave me a sly grin.

"Naturally," I said like Jordyn should've known me by now, "Come on man it's like you're reading my mind. I was about to suggest that."

"Well alright," Jordyn responded, "Let's go." We were about to walk off when Lauren said something to us.

"You two better be careful," Lauren said, "You both are always getting into trouble."

"Whoa," I said slyly, "I didn't know you cared so much."

"Well who else is gonna beat me at that stuff?" She asked with attitude but slightly blushing, "Use your brain blockhead!"

I chuckled. "Okay Jordyn let's get some stuff from my room real quick," I said. I had just thought of something. I was going to need help if I wanted to know what the Overseer was hiding or why he was so suspicious. I had to ask Jordyn, after all he was my best friend.

We both walked in my home as I heard Jessica suggest she and Lauren go on down to the beauty salon. "Yo what we lookin' for?" Jordyn asked as my door closed behind us.

"Nothing," I said truthfully, "I just needed to ask you something."

"What is it?" Jordyn asked curiously.

"I want to know why the Overseer is so dead set on finding out about organizations," I said quietly.

"You mean sneak into his office?" Jordyn asked like I was crazy.

"Exactly," I said seriously, "You in?"

"Hell yeah man," Jordyn said as we fist bumped, "But the Overseer's office? That goes deep dude. Real deep."

"I know," I said crossing my arms trying to think of something, "That's some serious trouble we could get into."

"I'm in bro," Jordyn said after thinking on it, "But I'm not that handy with a computer. Shouldn't we get Jared, Angel, or Jamie to come along? I mean all of you are good with tech like that man."

I thought about his words. Jordyn was right. If it was one thing we learned in survival class it was that teamwork is a good thing when you have many people wanting the same goal. It was then I knew it would be a good idea to have a third person in aiding us.

"Let's go talk to Jared," I said making my decision, "He's a good resource for this kind of stuff."

"Alright," Jordyn said agreeing with me. We walked down to the residential area before ours. Jared was in his home reading a book of some sort.

Jordyn tapped Jared's bedroom window. Jared looked up and waved. He got up and walked in the living room and opened his home door. "What's up guys?" He asked cheerfully.

"You up for getting in some trouble?" I asked like it was just another day.

Jared looked at me quizzically then grinned. "Come on in gentlemen," He said like this was business, "We have much to discuss." He gestured us to go in.

Jordyn and I walked in and Jared closed the door. "Parents here?" Jordyn asked flopping on a couch.

"Nah," Jared said flopping in a chair, "They're at work. What's this about trouble you say?"

I leaned against the wall with my arms folded. Jared was usually right up there with me, Jordyn, and the other boys who were friends with us. "We want to know what the Overseer is hiding," I said simply, "Why he's dead set on keeping organizations diminished."

Jared gave me a grin. "I see where this is going," He said mischievously, "The Overseer's office, correct?"

"Bingo," Jordyn said smoothly, "You in? That techy stuff isn't my style. I'll just keep a look out for you two."

"Passing up an opportunity to get inside the Overseer's computer mainframe?" Jared said like Jordyn was crazy, "What kind of an idiot do you think I am? Of course I'm in!"

"Good," I said glad he decided to come along, "What do you say we go tonight?"

"Yep," Jordyn said sounding joyful.

"I agree," Jared said nodding.

It was settled then. We would break into the Overseer's office and hack his mainframe. We were definitely ready for this. I knew I couldn't have asked for a better team on this one. Jordyn had mighty sharp senses for our age. I was almost as good with my senses as he was. Jared was the kid interested in the sciences. This mostly went with computers though. Me? Well I was good in many fields of the skills. It showed when I got Undetermined on my G.O.A.T Exam. With mine and Jared's combined brain power with computer consoles we would definitely succeed on this one. With Jordyn keeping lookout for us, he could warn us if anyone was coming. We had enough skill to pull this off providing no one made a mistake.

"Well," I said breaking a short silence, "We've got training in thirty minutes. I'm heading on down guys."

"Alright," Jordyn said getting up, "I'm going too. Come on Jared, It's not like reading that book will help with any training."

"Hey! I resent that," Jared said pointing his finger at Jordyn, "But training sounds fun right now anyways."

…

We walked on down to the Abandoned Vault area where the Survival Hall was. We basically just chilled until everyone got here. Beforehand, Zane and Jared's parents brought in loads of equipment and set them in a storage room. Zane told us it was sets of Vault jumpsuits, and armoring for us to make our armor with.

Everyone was assembled in the same classroom when we discovered everything about the S.P.E.C.I.A.L skills. Zane was in charge today, so he was the instructor.

"Okay," Zane said as we took our seats, "So far all us have taught you skills that we adults specialize or specialized in ranging from hacking to shooting a N99 10mm Pistol. Well we haven't been teaching you how to construct armor and maintain it yet. So I thought today is the day. Afterwards we'll begin with your endurance and agility training."

Then a beeping sound emitted from the door control console. Zane walked over to it, pressed a button, and spoke into it. "Come in," He said.

The door slid open and Donny was there. "Zane!" He said slightly enthused, "I finished analyzing and repairing the program for the Pip-boys!"

"Wait the-?" Zane asked but was cut off.

"Yeah!" Donny said, "Doc just got through field testing it. He says it is safe to use now!"

Zane grinned then turned to us. "Alright kids," He said pleased, "Change of plans. Donny has been working on replicating a program that can be downloaded on your Pipboy's. He'll explain everything."

Donny looked at us enthusiastically. "Listen up kids," he said sounding pleased, "A while ago we traded Vault Technology with Vault 63. They traded us a top notch pip-boy program for one of our spare water purifiers. This program is called V.A.T.S. It stands for Vault-tech Assistance Targeting System. It allows you to focus on a target more thoroughly than when you don't have it. The Doc gave me permission to give you all the replications of the program after years of successful testing."

He passed out chips that we were to stick in a slot on our Pip-boys. Immediately I felt something that made me feel more secure. I looked at Donny and tried focusing on him. Immediately I felt a slow motion effect as everyone froze as well as I did. I could concentrate on his limbs easier now. I stopped trying to focus on him and everything was normal.

Five minutes later Donny grinned at us like he just won the Vault credit lottery. "It works doesn't it?" He asked. We all nodded. "Okay," He said enthused, "I'll let Zane take over his class again."

As he walked out Zane said humorously, "Thank you Mr. Tech, I am glad to assume control again."

"Haha," Donny said back from the hall.

Zane continued his lessons. We learned how to make shoulder padded armor, and body armor that could resist pistol impact. It wasn't very hard; you just had to pay attention. After training was over it was 10:00 at night. Me, Jordyn, and Jared had came up with a plan for getting in the overseer's office and out. 9:30 was curfew time to which all civilians were confined to the residential suites.

We snuck out the residential suites and into the Abandoned Area. I picked the lock on the supply closet while Jordyn and Jared made sure no one was here. Inside the supply closet was everything we needed. We brought everything we were going to need out onto a table in the pitch dark survival hall. We had our Pipboy lights on so we could see. We had rappel ropes with hooks on the end, bobbypins that would be used for lockpicking, and a laptop for downloading files. We doubled back to our lockers and got dark clothing that included hooded jackets, gloves, pants, lower facial masks, and running boots. We also got our training utility belts that we would put the bobbypins in a pouch and hook our rappelling ropes on our sides. Jared would have a personalized backpack for the labtop terminal. Although we could download all the files on our Pipboy's I decided that it would be best to download them on the labtop terminal because if we were searched of our Pipboy's we'd be in trouble. Our only weapons would be a police baton which we strapped next to our ropes. We were set for a full operation of thievery but explanations.

We all walked towards the abandoned area exit and crept quietly pass the residential suites then found ourselves in the main Hall. There was a guard walking across the balcony on the second floor up. We all walked low and quietly towards the other side of the Main hall and down a secondary one. Instead of taking the elevator lift we climbed stairs to the Overseer's office floor. We crept close to the left side of the hall against the wall with Jordyn in front and peering around the corner of the hall. He signaled us to follow and we did. We crept towards the Overseer's office and stopped at the door. I pulled out a bobbypin and began working at the lock as Jared rewired the alarm system for the door. He crossed a few wires and placed the panel back on correctly. He gave me a 'thumbs up' and I nodded in response. I moved the tumblers in the exact way I wanted it to and then I heard a click. I pressed a button on the door control panel and the door slid open. We all crept inside and Jordyn closed the door behind us. He walked over to the security camera monitors as me and Jared walked over to the Overseer's terminal. Jared began working at the terminal trying to hack it. I looked around the office at the filing cabinets.

"I'm checking the filing cabinets," I told Jared quietly. He nodded still working at the terminal. I crept over to the filing cabinets and searched the drawers. There were files on everything mostly regarding vault career management, School grades, the vault treasury, and maintenance issues.

I went to another to see something about the water sanitation processor. There was nothing here, not of importance at least. "Sabor," Jared whispered, "I'm in the files."

"Let me see them." I whispered back closing the file cabinets, "Yo Jordyn we good?"

"Yeah," Jordyn said as I made my way over to the Overseer's terminal. I looked at files. There were folders on Vault matters, Personal notes, Vault history, and Vault Resident information. I didn't have enough time to look at all of this. I began downloading this stuff on the labtop terminal. While it was at twenty four percent I began looking in files. I downloaded the Vault Schematics on my Pipboy right when the data transfer was at ninety percent. I studied the schematics a little bit looking at vents that were large enough to crawl through. I kept studying it looking for the closest one that would be better for us to be able to use. Then there was one on the second floor from the bottom. It led to the abandoned area if followed correctly. There were even more exit points where one led to the education floor and another to the market area.

"Guys," Jordyn whispered, "someone's coming up the elevator to our floor! Let's get going!"

"Data transfer complete," Jared whispered putting the laptop terminal in his bag.

"Let's move," I whispered, "Follow me no matter what I say." I had a plan. We exited the overseer's office and moved quickly to the balcony area. We secured our hooks and were getting ready to go over when someone came around the corner of the secondary hall. It was a vault security officer.

"Hey!" He yelled as we gripped our ropes, "Hold it!"

"Second from the bottom," I whispered. We all began rappelling down as the officer ran to the railing right over me. I swung on second floor railing and yanked the hook off the top floor railing to pull it as I ran rolling up my rope. Jordyn and Jared were right behind me. I turned down a hall fastening my rope to my side as an Alarm blared. It was the criminal at large alarm.

Jordyn was laughing hysterically due to the thrill of some action as I came to a vent I wanted to use. I pulled out a bobbypin and began working a keyhole open. It was large enough for us to fit in by crawling. I opened it and ushered my two friends inside. They went in and I closed the vent behind me. We stopped right where the shadows of the light were and looked at the vent. Four sets of legs passed right by at amazing speed. We exited the ventilation system in the Abandoned area near Zane's classroom.

We all started laughing in relief of an escape. We put all our stuff in the places they were supposed to be for tomorrow's training. I hid the computer in the vent we came through on a ventilation fan that was broken down. We all agreed that we would lay low for a few days until the heat wore off. It wasn't hard sneak back into our residential suites because all the security officers were in the upper levels somewhere and our parents were sound asleep. At least someone could sleep; I had adrenaline running through my veins where I couldn't. It took at least an hour for me to finally sleep.

…

The next morning there was a Vault wide search on the three clothed law breakers. No one knew who these three were but they seemed to disappear on the second floor after a chase. They all jumped over the railing and somehow landed on the same floor. It is thought that these three delinquents were members of the Vault Breakers. Well, that's the rumors anyways. Only me, Jordyn, and Jared know who they were….us.

As far as I knew neither one of our parents were suspicious of us being the culprits and we didn't let them know. Either way training resumed in secret as always. Only this time every single one of us was asked about the incident last night. None of us confessed to being involved. We kept practicing with making armor today.

When lessons were done I got the laptop terminal out from the hiding place and went to my room with it. I locked my door and closed the blinds on my window so no one could find out what I was doing. I looked at the countless information on the terminal. There was information on Vault-Tec and Supplies, Logs on the tech inside, and logs on important events. Curiosity of technology was getting to me so I tried looking at those files.

The Tech and Supply files were separated into four categories: SMM Supplies (Security, Maintenance, and Medical), Vault Electronics, SOL Tech/Supply (Standard of Living), and Vault Tech Information. I was astounded by the knowledge these files contained. SMM supplies included a lot I hadn't even thought about. For Security there were schematics on the various cameras around the vault, security armor, weapons, and locking systems. For Maintenance there were supply listings for tools, spare parts, and manuals for repairs. For Medical there were medicines, hygienic supplies, and treatment supplies. Vault Electronics were about the lighting, circuitry and power all over the Vault. The SOL Tech was the water and food sanitizer, the Vault Greenhouse, and the Residential Suite accommodates. The SOL supplies included home wares, sports equipment, and a lot of utensils I didn't look through the list. Last was the technology information. It showed information on the Mister Handy's in the vault, the vault radio station, and information on Pip-boy's.

I looked at the files about the Vault-Tec Logs. Most were junk, nothing but maintenance crap and procedures involving hazardous situations in the Vault. There was only one topic left, something about a weird thing called a G.E.C.K. I didn't have time to read it though. There was a knock on my door. I closed the laptop immediately and shoved it in a vent under my bed asking, "Who is it?"

"It's mom," I heard a female voice say. I almost panicked there. Mom was one of my favorite people in the entire Vault because, well, she was my mother. I picked up my baseball tossing it up in the air and catching it as I walked over and unlocked the door.

"Hey mom," I said tossing the baseball up again, "What's up, no work today?" I caught the baseball again. I wasn't about to bring up any incident regarding three kids. That would be like trying to tell her I just murdered the overseer, but then again she wasn't on good terms with him anyways.

"No honey," she said with a basket of jumpsuits in her arms, "I've got today off. Your dad's getting off early today too." I tossed my baseball up in the air again and caught it.

"So you want me to help out today mom?" I asked curiously, "I mean I still can't figure out which career I want to pursue. Maybe you could help me?" I followed mom to the living room table as she took out the jumpsuits.

"I'd love to sweetie," Mom said sounding truthful, "But I have to buy rations for this week. When your father gets off we can go career hunting while we go to the markets, okay?" She folded one of the jumpsuits.

"Okay sure mom," I said tossing the baseball up again then catching it, "Anything you want me to do?" I was extremely bored. Whatever I could help my mom do around our suite I would.

"If you would could you wash the dishes?" She asked smiling.

"Yeah sure mom," I replied putting my baseball on the table. I walked over and did as I was told. I guess it didn't matter what I wanted, as long as I could live my life well without the Vault being broken into.

After a while she asked me something that caught me off guard. "Sabor?" She asked pleasantly but with seriousness to her tone.

"Yes?" I replied still doing the dishes.

"Do you know anything about those three so called misfits?" She asked me. I tried keeping a blank face. It was easy to keep my intentions and emotions hidden from anyone but my mom, dad, and friends. Crap.

"No ma'am," I replied trying to sound convincing, "What did they do anyway?" I put on of the cups in the cabinet.

"The Overseer has charged them with trespassing and attempt to robbery." Mom said folding a jumpsuit.

"_Haha, attempt. That's a good one,_" I thought humorously. Attempt is an understatement. But I had to keep this conversation going to make myself sound convincing. "Any idea what they were after then?" I asked trying to sound curious.

"Well," she sighed then continued, "There were on the overseer's level and near his office so he thinks that is what they were after. Information. But somehow they all jumped off the top floor and landed on the second. Then disappeared."

I laughed a bit. "Mom who was the officer?" I asked snorting slightly.

"Officer Jarza," Mom replied.

"Isn't that the drunk?" I asked like I knew he was. The bad part is he was a drunk. He spent Vault credits on beer and vodka all the time.

"Well I guess when you put it that way," Mom said making sense of my judgment, "I guess your insinuations are right."

"I know they are mom," I replied cheerfully, "I mean isn't kind of strange that they 'jump' off the top floor and land on the second and survive. Not to mention outrunning a well trained security officer who happens to drink vodka like candy? Something doesn't add up mom. I don't think there was even anyone there. I have seen Jarza walk when he's drunk. He gets so drunk he wets himself and passes out. The bad part is when he's sober he can't even walk straight."

Mom gave me a laugh. "What are you a comedian?" She asked lightly.

"Nope," I said just as light, "I'm just speaking my mind. Truth sucks huh?"

"I guess so," Mom said sounding like she was getting over my humor real quick. She muttered something unintelligible.

Then our suite door open. Dad came in. "Morning dear," He said to mom and kissed her on the cheek. He turned and walked over to me. "Morning son, helping mom out huh?"

"Yeah dad," I replied cheerfully, "Your home early." It was only 10:00 in the morning.

"Yeah," He said happily, "I've got R8S in there watching the clinic. I get to spend the day with you two."

"Cool," I said enthused. It was rare I got to spend time with my parents.

So we all spent the day together pretty much. We went to the greenhouses and bought fresh produce. Dad explained to me how they made the greenhouses which I listened intently. We all went to the markets next to buy a few things like cleaning supplies. We then visited Donny at his job in the Technician Room. He was working on a Type II Mister Handy.

"Is this better?" He asked the robot as he adjusted one of its three mechanical arms.

"Yes," The robot replied sounding content, "Thank you. I will report to the Overseer immediately and tell him my systems are working properly now." With that the Mister Handy floated by us out the door.

"Hey guys," Donny said putting a wrench down, "You caught me on my break. What's up?"

"Nothing much Donny," Dad said shrugging his shoulders, "We just decided to take a walk around the Vault. I figured we could visit you on your break."

"Looks like you're right on time," Donny replied contently.

I looked at a deactivated Mister Handy. I don't know why but it felt like it couldn't be fixed or something like that. I walked over to it and stroked the spherical base of its body. I looked at the rotors that moved its long arms. Donny and my parents were preoccupied with a conversation. I looked at the robotic eyes that were off. One was missing too. I stroked around the ring like eye piece that would surround the lens. What was it that fascinates me about robots? Robots, science, learning? The entire bunch of everything, keeping my mind and body satisfied with the knowledge of something. It was eating me away to see a perfectly good Mister Handy in disrepair like this.

"Donny?" I asked almost interrupting the conversation between him and my parents.

"Huh?" Donny asked like he almost forgot I was there, "What's up kiddo?" He walked over to me and the robot.

"What's wrong with this thing?" I asked curiously.

Donny looked at the robot. "I don't know bud," Donny said sounding truthful, "I've taken it apart, put it together, and taken it apart again. But I still can't figure out why it's not working."

I looked at Donny and then looked back at the robot quizzically. "Whose is it?" I asked curiously.

"No one's," Donny said, "I found it in the "you know where"." I knew where that was, the abandoned section of the vault. "You can have it if you want. I can't do anything with it."

"Really?" I asked astounded and with a shocked expression. I had never owned a robot before. If he was serious I would try my best to get this thing working, and shoot modify it if I could. That just saved me from a lot of boredom.

"Yeah," Donny said sounding honest, "Maybe you can get it up and running, programmed, and what not. It's just gathering dust sitting here. I did use it for spare parts for the other Mister Handy's. Remember when R8S needed a new torch?"

"Yeah," I said happy, "And thanks Donny! Mom? Dad? Can I have it?" Please let them say yes.

Mom and Dad looked at each other. I felt like an eight year old who was asking for a shotgun. I bet anyone knows that feeling.

"Sure kiddo," Dad said smiling, "It would be good for you to tinker with something like that. There's that extra room in the suite too that we had the refrigerator in front of. We could move it and put it near the counter again."

"Wait what?" I asked confused, "We have another room?"

"Oh that's right," Mom said almost laughing, "We forgot to tell you yesterday. We kept it a secret because we were going to give you it as a gift for passing the G.O.A.T. Remember that unused door in the hallway to the other blocks? That's it."

"Oh," I said like I finally comprehended a life long mystery, "So you're saying that this room was part of our home this whole time?"

"Yep," Dad said.

"Sweet!" I said excited, "and it's mine?"

"Yep," Mom said.

"Awesome!" I responded even more enthused.

"And since you are sixteen," Dad said sounding like he was trying to make me more excited, "We will obey your rules of that room."

I couldn't help it. My mouth hung open like I just won the Vault Lottery. "Thank You!" I said instantly happy. I could see it now. I knew what I'd do with the room. Make it a workshop or something where I can work on stuff a lot. I loved the idea.

"Your welcome," Mom said laughing at my excitement. Okay now I felt like an eight year old for some reason.

Then I thought of something. What if I started doing things to experience them and learn from it? I know it sounds a bit confusing and maybe corny but for some reason I have an appetite for knowledge. It was like nostalgia was kicking in or something that would guide me. Building robots, learning more about science, learning to be stealthy, shooting guns? It felt like a fantasy he had just stepped into. He wanted to start now. But to do be able to buy stuff for research he had to get a job. Somewhere….

…

After hauling the malfunctioned yet deactivated Mister Handy home I helped dad move the refrigerator aside and looked at the door control pad. "Here," Dad said giving me the key, "all yours." I used the key on the control pad and the door slid open. The room was dark dusty and full of nothing. There was nothing in it but one safe. I looked around it. It was around the size of my room and there was another door that led out the other side of my room window. There weren't any other windows and the room had no lights.

"Wow," I said happily, "Dad I've got to get a job. Get this place fixed up with some stuff in the markets."

Dad laughed. "Slow down there son," He said, "You have to figure out what you want to do with your life first. Your career in particular."

I thought long and hard about it before I could come up with an answer. Around an hour later I decided what I wanted to be, a doctor or an assistant. I ran that by dad who was happy to oblige. So I had a job with my parents. We all ran the Doctors office. The next week or two my parents trained me in the career. The entire time I would receive 100 Vault credits as pay per week. I guess I was lucky enough to pick a high paying job because the only other job that was higher was the overseer which was 120 vault credits a week. The other highest was the security which was roughly only 80 credits a week. I guess I had finally found a meaning to life in this vault. I couldn't ask for anything better.

….

**That's it for chapter 2**

**Yeah not much of an ending but the next chapter will be better. Things are shaping up a little but I promise you won't see the events coming. Review please.**


	4. Motions

**A/N: After a long time working on my other fanfics such as Legacy of the Lone wanderer and some other stuff, I've come back to this one with a better plot than before. If there are more than one update to this thing I'm sorry, I had to reword some things and give new names to some characters at the request of my two year girlfriend who shares the same interests as I do. In fact, she writes some of the paragraphs. Anyhow, my made up characters Sabor and Kate were changed to Nathan (Nate for short) and Lauren (the name of my girlfriend). As a side note, with all this being said you can probably guess the outcome of some things now. So enjoy!**

**Part 1: Mayhem of a Classified Vault**

**Chapter 3- Motions**

It was almost three years later. I was years old and I had a well paying job. The survival classes were cut down to twice a month because the Overseer was getting more and more suspicious of the same people being missing for a period of time. That was when we started to slowly become rebellious with the overseer whom had cracked down on law enforcements. It was then I realized the Overseer wasn't telling us something. That one laptop terminal we used to gain information was forgotten in the rush of growing up for two years.

….

It all started when I was about to turn over. I was at the top of my career and was still living in the same residential suite. The one thing I loved about my parents is that they let me be in charge of two rooms in our home, my room and my office. I never let anyone in my office. Why? Because I always wanted a spot where I could relax on my own and keep my work secret. In this case everything I do in that room is my business only.

Of course I knew my mind and body thirsts for knowledge. So I dedicated this little room for my personal use of 'toys' and tinkering with things like my Type II Mister Handy Robot and a bunch of computers and experimental compounds such as weaponry, chems, and electronics. My office had a lot in it now. It had a desk that had my research terminal on it and a pile of papers that had my own personal notes on experiments and stuff. I had several shelves full of books as well. There was a table that held my unfinished and deactivated Mister Handy with parts sprawled all around its body. On other shelves were small parts that I use in my creations.

There were metal bottle shaped containers of turpentine on the top shelve. Turpentine acts as a crude oil like fluid and is explosive if mixed with the right chemicals. Another shelf had black rectangular shaped objects with a red blipping light, a antennae, a wire that runs from one end to the other, and an adjustable knob which was called a sensor module. On the same shelf was a large supply of box shaped batteries that could power anything by nuclear energy; these were known as fission batteries. There were large conductors on the third shelf which were used for various reasons. A large bullet proof riot shield was leaning on the side of the desk. I found it in some old junk and fixed it up.

Aside from that there were more shelves full of books and robotic components. I even had a Mark I Turret deactivated on another table. Mark I Turrets are ceiling based unmanned turrets that has an automatic firing mechanism. It of course wasn't finished. Every once in a while a thought ran across my mind to somehow attach it to my Mister Handy but I knew the extra weight would cause the Mister Handy to produce more power to stay airborne. In order for it to operate at full capacity it would require a large supply of energy from a fission battery. It sounds like a fantasy even to me, but I've came up with more ideas much more unrealistic. But I figured every great scientist had to start some where.

I was cleaning my bedroom one day, deciding the mess was a bit more than I could bear. Vault jumpsuits were everywhere and boots were all over the floor. My Doctor's jacket was hanging on a coat hanger near the door. My bed was messed up; blanket and sheets wrinkled, and my pillow dangling off the side of the bed. I wasn't going to activate my floor based automatic cleaning system until I finished getting the clothes up. It took around fifteen minutes to get everything up. I happened to see one more jumpsuit wrinkled up under my bed. I got on my stomach and reached for it. Then I saw something in the wall vent. It was a laptop terminal.

The events of two years ago flashed through my mind. I mean breaking into the Overseer's office and retrieving data. I can't believe I completely forgot about the whole thing. I went in with two of my friends wanting to find out what the overseer was hiding from the rest of the vault. It was a success but we never touched the terminal this entire time. Dang I felt stupid.

I reached in and grabbed the laptop terminal and walked into my office. I was determined to continue this life long mystery. I closed my door behind me and locked both exits. I put the laptop terminal on my desk and opened it. The fission battery was low. It had just enough power to tell me that the battery was low then turn off. Just my luck.

"Son of a-"

I was cut off by shouting and my door alert mechanism going off. "Nathan! Come out quick!" I heard my friend's voice. Usually they weren't so urgent when they needed something. I got up and walked to the door COM. I knew who it was, Zack Miles.

"What is it?" I asked slightly concerned.

"The Overseer is issuing a search warrant for the Vault officers to search the Abandoned area," He said urgently, "They start in five hours!"

"What!" I yelled. Not caring that Zack could see what I was working on in here I pressed the button and the door slid open. Turns out there were Zack, Brook, Kaitlyn, Matthew, and Christina at the door; all were in the Survival Program and close friends. "Damn," I said surprised at the number of people here.

I closed the door after a few of them glanced inside. "What have you been doing in there?" Matthew asked probably seeing my Mister Handy.

"None ya," I responded, "Forget about what's in there. Tell me what's going on." Sheesh we really need to stay focused on the problem at hand. They don't need to know what I'm doing in there.

I followed whoever was leading the rest of us to where ever as some of the others filled me in. "The Overseer sent word to Zane that he would lead a search in the Abandoned area for a possible rebellion against him," Christina said, "He ordered him to execute the warrant at 4:30 in the afternoon. We've got to get in there before Zane and his squad does. Zane is risking his job and pretty much his life telling our parents this."

"And our parents can't go in that area and retrieve the stuff because the Overseer probably hand picked officers to watch the entrances right?" I asked knowing the Overseer would do something like that.

"How'd you know?" Kaitlyn asked as we turned down another Residential suite hall.

"Let's just say I know people pretty well," I answered, "Where are the others?"

"Jordyn, Lauren, Jared, and Jessica found a way in the area through the vents," Brook said, "Angela and John are stuck with Zane and a few officers trying to prolong the search somehow. We're going to get the others now. How Jordyn and the others found their way through the vents I don't know."

"I do," I said thinking of ways to fix this problem, "Don't ask questions and follow me. I need someone to round up the other Survival Program students."

"I'm on it," Kaitlyn said breaking off from us.

Things were happening so fast. It was hard to think straight but I was going to no matter what. I lead the others to the vent on the second floor. The one me, Jordyn, and Jared used two years ago. I led the way to the Abandoned area. I told them to go to the survival hall with Jordyn and the rest then doubled back out the way I came in. I looked for Kaitlyn and the other eight students and lead them through the vents to the abandoned area.

"Okay it appears that our parents can't do a thing about the Warrant," I said as we all gathered around the table, "So we pretty much have to take everything apart and store the weapons and equipment in the vents."

"But what if the overseer sends the squad in early?" A boy named Eric asked.

"I've already thought of that," I said glad he brought that up, "Jared can change the password for the entrance while two more people bring desks and start barricading the hallway. It would at least slow the squad down. The rest of us will be packing the small weaponry and equipment into boxes that can be dragged into the vents. Others can disassemble the training booths and storage areas. The junk and crap that is in the storage rooms need to be brought out to make it look like this place really was abandoned. Any questions?"

No reply. "Good," I said with a bit of leadership in me, "Let's get going and don't forget to empty your lockers."

That was it. We all got to doing what I had planned. I helped out with the packing but I also helped take everything down too. I knew if the lights were on when the squad came in that would just be like yelling, "Hey we're in here. Arrest us for breaking the law!" How retarded would that be? _Extremely._ To solve this, when we were done packing I would turn off the generator that powered the abandoned area's lighting and air conditioning.

After everything was in the ventilation system and the desk barricade was up I let Jordyn lead everyone back through the vents. Only Jared and I stayed behind. We were going to switch off the power. He and I pulled two levers down and suddenly it was pitch black. There wasn't the silent hum of the air conditioning either.

"Creepy," Jared said his voice echoing then decided to make light of the darkness, "Hey Nathan?"

"Yeah?" I asked as I felt the around the edges of my Pipboy looking for the light.

"It's dark," He said simply.

"What was your first hint?" I asked sarcastically but finding humor in his comment, "The fact we can't see anything or there's no light?"

"Hmmm" He said back, "Are you my conscious?" I laughed a bit.

"No but mine is telling me to get the hell out of here before Zane's squad gets here," I said finally finding the light switch for my Pipboy. There was about a five meter diameter of light before it faded away.

"Hey!" Jared waved at me from the doorway, "I see you!" He began chuckling.

"Yeah uh huh," I said shortly, "How you doin'?" I grinned as I walked out along side him as he chuckled a bit. We followed the hall towards the vent we've been using to get in and out the abandoned area.

We got right near the area that the vent was near and voices could be heard further on down the hall.

It was Zane and his squad. "Does the Overseer really think there are a bunch of rebels down here?" One officer asked.

"Apparently yes," I heard Zane's voice but sounded annoyed with the entire situation, "The only thing down here is Radroaches, junk, and dust." I could see their Pipboy lights through the cracks of the barricade of desks.

"Who put these desks like this?" Another officer asked, "Someone has got to be using this place." There was a short silence but then Zane broke it.

"They look as exactly as they were ten years ago," Zane said trying to sound annoyed but also had a hint of amazement in his voice, "I oversaw movement of them from an old classroom back then." 

There was another short silence. "So," one of the officers prolonged the word then said, "What do we do?"

"Isn't it simple?" Zane asked like it should've been, "We move them and check around this crappy place." Jared almost laughed. I could relate. This is where all but a twentieth of the vault stayed while we secretly trained for survival if the need aroused. Zane talking like that about this place, when he considered it his home away from home? Ironic. I could hear the officers move the desks in the pitch blackness of the halls. I signaled Jared to follow and we quietly slipped in the vent and closed the cover behind us.

We made it back to the Residential area and found everyone waiting for us in Residential block, me, Jordyn, Lauren, and Jessica lives in. Angela and John were here as well.

"We tried man," John said shaking his head like it was a challenge, "Even Zane could see we were trying to keep us all out of trouble."

"Yeah," Angela said sounding disappointed, Sorry." She looked like she was on the verge of tears.

Jared, being kind hearted like he always walked towards her and put one arm around her shoulder. "Hey listen," He said comfortingly, "We all took care of it. Me and Nathan stayed behind to make sure they didn't catch us."

I looked around at our large crowd and the passing residents giving us funny looks because of it. If they heard us conversing on our secret then we might as well pack our bags and mysteriously disappear by the Overseer's orders. That thought still gave me chills that ran down my spine.

"Okay listen," I said getting all of their attention, "Let's uh, let's go in my home and finish this conversation up in there." All of them looked at me like I had just made a once in a life time proposal. I didn't answer I just pressed a button on the panel and my door slid open. We all piled in the living room and kitchen; all twenty of us.

It was a buzz of noise as some conversed with others. I quieted them down. "Okay listen," I said looking around at them. "Just so everyone is clear, Zane sounded surprised about the desks and probably made up the lie he told the rest of the squad. I know we're safe on that part."

"That's a relief," a girl named Erika said, "If he came up with that, he knows we at least tried."

"Yeah," Another girl said whose name was Kelly had spoken up.

"For now," I said, "Everyone lye low. We don't want to attract attention from the Overseer. The best thing to do for now is to go back to doing our cover-ups, kay?"

With that everyone filed out of my residence and I was left alone with my thoughts. We got by on the skin of our teeth with this one. The overseer almost came down on us bad. I walked over in my little work office and started tinkering with anything to get this off my mind. I looked over at my work table that had the Mister Handy on it. I had gotten the robot in operational condition but I was modifying it so it could operate with a mounted Mark I turret. My original idea was to mount an extra arm on the Mister Handy and attach the turret to it. I got to working on a spare robotic arm and dismantling its robotic fingers and wrist.

When I finished that, I started wiring the circuitry of the Mark I's turret to the arm. Afterwards I found myself testing the firing mechanism on the arm. I only placed one bullet in the Cartilage, and fired it at a specially made firing target that could absorb the impact of a bullet. The Mark I turret fired perfectly. Now it was time to test the optic targeting system of the gun. It was working alright, I just had to replace the glass shielding on the camera. That wasn't too hard either. The only thing that I wasn't prepared for was the weight of the Mark I turret might be a little too much for the Mister Handy to operate with the arm. So I fixed that little problem by modifying the arm's mechanics. I attached and mounted heavier movement servos and pumps. That fixed that problem.

I activated the Mister Handy and it roared to life. "Hello Master," It said in an English tone, "What can I do for you?"

"Shoot the target with your turret."

"Yes Master." It turned and shot two rounds at the target. "Systems are operational."

"Excellent," I said, "Are there any problems with your other functions?"

"No master, just a five percent decrease in jet propulsion systems," The Mister Handy said.

"Alright," I said nodding, "Deactivate."

"Yes Master," It responded then went to deactivation mode.

I sighed looking at its deactivated body. Being in this Vault was frustrating. You had a power abusing Overseer, laws that didn't let you do squat, and just being cramped down here made my skin crawl. In a way, I wanted to get out of here, I wanted to see what life was like in the Wasteland. I could only dream….

But if only I knew what these kind of thoughts would lead to.

….

After the failed attempt to uncover a "rebellion" two weeks ago, the Vault Overseer had officially gone off the deep end. He had finally cracked, lost it. There were stricter curfews, more intense punishments. The Vault Security even sent three innocent men to jail because they disobeyed the Overseers order to clean a spill in a hallway. The final straw for me was putting more taxes on all medical patients. If any doctors didn't collect taxes it was treason. It was official. The Overseer was the cause of an uprising. The Uprising was just a major disagreement with how he was leading us. It was caused by something I didn't attend though.

I was off of work just sitting on the couch when my parents came in from their room. "Nathan," Mom said to me.

"Yeah?" I said standing up.

"Bye son," Dad said giving me a hug, "We're going to work."

"Okay," I said blinking, "Love you." With that he walked out the door. Mom suddenly gave me a bigger hug.

"Nathan," She said then kissed me on the forehead, "You know I'm proud of you right?"

"Yeah," I said slightly confused. I glanced behind her to see some kind of backpack in the doorway of her room.

"I love you sweetheart," She said almost on the verge of tears and hugging me again. She let go a tear rolling down her face.

"Mom," I asked her, "What's wrong? And what's with the backpack in your-"

Something covered my mouth and nose before I could react. Someone had grabbed me from behind and had a good grip on me with a plastic mask over my only two breathing holes. It was sleeping gas. I struggled but I was slowly losing conscious. I watched my mom's blurry form walk back and grab two backpacks from the room and start to walk towards me. But before I could figure out what was going on…..darkness.

….

There was a faint beating somewhere. It was enough to wake me up. I was seriously disoriented. But I looked up at where the beating noise was coming from. It was the window of my bedroom. How did I end up in here? There were two people banging on the window. "Nathan!" One yelled, "Wake up!"

It was Jordyn and Mathew. "What?" I asked standing up and using the window seal for support.

"Open your residential door!" Matthew yelled, "It's important!"

"How important?" I yawned.

"Damn it Nathan!" Jordyn yelled, "Our parents! They're gone!"

Then it all came back to me. Someone had put me into a deep sleep while mom just watched. I immediately shook off my dizziness from the sleeping gas I was subjected to and made my way out to the living room area. I opened the door and four people poured in. They were wielding N99's. It was Lauren, John, Jared, and Angela.

"What's going on?" I asked them, "What's all this about?"

"He's done it Nathan," Lauren said looking distressed, "The Overseer's done it. He banished over a hundred people in the Vault!"

There were only six hundred thirty nine residents in the Vault itself. Now we are losing over a hundred? "Wait," I said, "You mean he-..our parents?"

"Yes," Lauren replied, "I can't believe you fell asleep like that."

"Asleep!" I said shocked, "I didn't fall asleep. Some one used sleeping gas to knock me out. My mom stood there and watched!" The thought of it made so many emotions and questions come into my head. Emotions I was taught to ignore to an extent. Lauren and the others looked in disbelief.

"Huh?" Jared said looking entirely confused.

"That's what my first thought was," I answered then like a train I realized something, "Wait. What's with the N99's?"

"The Overseer's ordering the shooting of anyone who is suspected a rebel," Jordyn said coming in, "He's got a continuous broadcast over the vaults radio stating the names. All of the Survival members are to be detained and await punishment or be shot on sight. Our Parents were all banished because they were lying about having rebels in their family. They got off easy, _but _they didn't allow the Overseer to get any of us by sending us all into the Abandoned part of the Vault. They told us there was something in there for a surprise and it was in the very back."

"What was it?" I asked confused.

"We don't know," Lauren said, "We never found it. By the time we came out and went towards the Atrium, We were being shot at. I guess you missed out on all the action."

"Wait you saw our parents leaving?" I asked confused.

"We saw my parents," Jordyn said, "They were some of the last to be herded out by Vault Security. Zane was supposed to be on our side. He was the one who shot down one man for refusing to leave! He's a traitor!"

"He did what?" I asked completely shocked, "He shot down someone for not leaving?"

"Yeah," Jordyn said, "Then he yelled at us nineteen right as we were being aimed at by one of the security people. Then all the Vault Security guards started to open fire on us. We all fled down this way after we lost them on the floor above using the vents."

Mathew rushed in the door. "Two of them are coming!" He announced.

"Nathan quick," John said as the others readied their N99's, "If you have anything you want from your room or something, get it now. We've got to go into the Abandoned Area, that's the safest place for us now."

I heard a gunshot ring off which started a shootout. "They're on Mathew!" Jared yelled running back out the door. They must've seen him with the gun and started firing.

I quickly grabbed a backpack from under my bed and packed a few more of my clothes.

"Nathan!" Lauren yelled, "They're pushing the others back. I looked out my bedroom window to see Guards passing quickly. One noticed me and doubled back towards the residential door in the living room. I had to react quickly. Lauren didn't see him as she turned towards my dresser before he came back. Quickly placing my backpack down, I tackled a figure at a door with vault security armor on. The force of me into his gut caused us both to go into the coffee table and I just started punching him as I had him pinned down.

The Vault Security officer grabbed his baton and hit me in the side three times as I continued to punch. The fourth time he used my temporary pain against me and pushed me off. I used my feet to jog backwards to keep from falling. He pulled out his N99 only to fire up at the ceiling because I moved his arm up that way, incidentally nicking a water line that spray a fine mist thick enough where you could see through it. I twisted his arm fracturing it, spun him around and pushed him away with my foot. He landed on the sofa screaming in pain. Lauren apparently didn't know what to think as she stood there like a scared sheep. I had packed all the stuff in my room before the incident.

"Lauren," I said as she looked at the guard frightened, "Come on don't wig out on me now. Let's go Lauren!" I picked up my backpack, slung it over my back, grabbed Lauren's hand and walked quickly to my office door.

I opened it with a passcode and the door slid open. I closed it behind us and grabbed a few things. The laptop terminal with all the Overseer's information on it. I also grabbed a battery pack for it. "Open up in there!" I heard pounding going on, "By the name of the Overseer open up!" They were pounding on my resident side of the office door.

"Shit," I said activating my modified Mister Handy. It jumped to life and armed its machine gun. "E2-3," I commanded, "When I open this door, do what it takes to keep us safe. Only harm the security personnel."

"Yes master," E2-3 responded. I opened the door and E2-3 hovered out causing a short stop in gunfire. The modified Mr. Handy looked up and down the hall with its eyes looking around. One guard was brave enough to approach it.

"Hey you stupid tin can," The guard said walking up to it, "Get out of the way!"

"Threat assessment critical," It responded then rotated its body to shoot a powerful flame at the guard who had dove back towards his companions in the nick of time. E2-3 turned its turret at them and unleashed a spray of bullets. It hovered closer to them out of the door way so we could get out of the office.

"Hold this Lauren," I said to her giving her the laptop terminal and the fission battery. I yanked up my repaired riot shield and started to walk out the door, "Give me your N99 and I'll cover your escape to the others." She handed it to me without uttering a word. I checked the outside. There was a light resistance in firing; probably the guards retreating and having someone cover them.

"Go now!" I told her and simultaneously exiting with my riot shield in the path of any bullet from the guards. She bolted towards Jordyn who was in the group left. I felt and heard a stray bullet hit the shield and ricochet off to the ceiling of the hall. "E2-3, follow me but cover our retreat!"

"Yes master," It responded. I locked my office door back and started to walk towards the others. I didn't want to lose E2-3. It would be a valuable asset for us. Slowly me and E2-3 made our way towards the others who were walking towards the abandoned area of the vault. I could literally see the normal entrance we used.

Before I could reach the door where everyone else was going through, E2-3 yelled something. "Master Get down!" It yelled.

"What?" I said unintelligibly, I turned to see around it that one of the guards had some kind of weapon that we reviewed in the survival program, a grenade launcher. "Shit!" I pressed a button on the riot shield and immediately metal slid out the sides and top making a bigger shield. I crouched down and held on the shield tighter. I heard it. An explosion surfaced hitting E2-3 and its bulk sent into the shield. The blast was powerful enough to cause a ringing in my ears and me to flinch. I got up dragging the riot shield with me. Whoever had the grenade launcher fired off another shot, and when he did I felt the grenade hit and bounce off. It exploded right near me causing vibrations in the air. I was nearly to the door. Suddenly…..boom!

Me and the riot shield went flying back towards it. The Riot shield fell over me. "Nathan!" I heard Lauren scream. Jordyn was speechless.

_Fuck. You idiots, close the door. _"Close the door," I yelled from under my entrapment, "I'll be okay!"

"But—"

"Just close the fucking door!" I yelled, "I'll find another way in!" With that Jordyn reluctantly closed the door and sealed it. I could see Lauren on the verge of tears as it closed. That imaged would forever be scarred on my mind. I pushed the riot shield off of me and got up. I grabbed my N99 from my left on the floor and holstered it. Before I made my next move, something flashed through my head like it was third person. _I was on a medical table. No, not a medical table, it was some other kind. There were needles all in my arms and screens all around me. _I came back to reality as I heard something. The guards were advancing on me. "Don't move!" one of them yelled, "Drop the Weapon!"

"No," I muttered.

"Drop the weapon!" Another yelled. One with the grenade launcher pointed it at me.

"Make me," I yelled back.

"Open fire!" The one with the grenade launcher yelled.

It all happened in slow motion then. I was pulling off something incredible. I could _see _the inner mechanics of the guns as they were about to combust and send a small pinnacle of death my way. There was another hallway to my left. I didn't know how I did it, but I got there in the nick of time before being pumped full of lead. Everything went back to normal and I could hear the bullets pass right by me as on ricocheted off the corner. I had my back to the edge of that very corner. How did I do that? That was nothing close to V.A.T.S. It didn't matter now, what's done was done. I immediately took off down the hall. I came up on the neighboring residential hall and ran back towards the atrium.

The slow-mo thing came again. This time the point of focus was ahead from the corner. I could see the sleeve of someone. I kept running and instinctively getting lower to the ground. I avoided a clothesline from a guard and turned around to punch him in the face as he turned his head to realize he missed me. The force of the blow caused his head to hit the wall and he fell back unconscious. I took his baton out of his holster and carried it with me. I continued to run towards the atrium. I ran in and came to realize that all my exits out of it were blocked by Vault Security. I was about to double back when the group who had been chasing me blocked my only exit. I frowned.

"Hmph," I uttered.

"Surrender!" A familiar voice yelled, "You've been caught." I looked up on the top floor to see none other than the overseer with two guards near him.

"Why did you banish my parents and the other vault dwellers?" I demanded.

"It was for the good of the vault!" the Overseer yelled back, "They harbored a rebellion, one which _you _are part of."

"There was no rebellion you idiot!" I yelled back, "They just taught us stuff that _you_ wouldn't allow. We weren't going to 'rebel' against the people in our own home!"

"And what was the things you were taught?" The Overseer asked solemnly.

"Survival," I said simply. The Overseer didn't say anything about it. But he seemed through talking.

"Apprehend him," The overseer said finally, "No firearm is permitted."

"Aw," I said, "Don't hold back on _my _account." _Yeah my ass is in a Neuse. _

Then they all rushed me with batons. I sighed slowing myself down. How was I going to get out of this one? But as I thought that, my body and mind went on autopilot. I moved out the way of one guard who went to tackle me and pulled out my baton on the other who went to swing above with his. I immediately moved under his arm and hit the one behind him in the face and then kicked the first guard into a group that attempted to surround me. Another guard decided to try his luck by swinging. I swung my own hitting his and then came back to hit him in the head. I turned quickly to punch another guard in the face and swing my baton at him to knock him unconscious. I returned to the one I was previously dealing with and kicked him down. I ducked to avoid a blow to the head and I quickly punched him in the side and then swung my baton at another guard to block his. I pushed the first guard I ducked under into another stunning them.

I just barely had enough time to block another guard's baton and punch a second guard who just decided to use my blind spot. After he was slightly stunned I quickly moved around all three guards and push one into another and grab the front of the last guard's neck from behind and slam him into the ground back-first. One guard actually tried to tackle me. His weight was enough to put me on one knee. I struggled to get up, not giving up that easily, and then somehow by a mere miracle threw him off of me and into a fellow guard. I brought my knee up to one guard in the gut and then punched him in the face to knock him down. There were ten guards sprawled out and only five left.

"Let's take him down together," One guard suggested.

"Tackle his ass!" Another yelled. They all rushed me. I turned to run towards a wall with them right on my butt. I was going to hit it. _Fuck. _But the impact never came. I found myself running up the wall and back-flipping over a guard who went to tackle me. I landed and shoved him by the head into the wall knocking him unconscious and simultaneously elbowing a guard to my right in the face while incidentally ducking under a baton swing to the head from the left. Afterwards in quick succession I jabbed with my fists at the guard to the left, in the abdomen multiple times before turning to throw my baton at the last guard who was slower that the others. It hit dead on in his stomach. He recoiled clutching it and leaning over slightly long enough for me to bring my knee up into his face. The one guard I elbowed had recovered and went to tackle me. I sidestepped him and guided him into the guard I had jabbed multiple times. They both tumbled and fell back.

I stepped back examining my handiwork unsure how this all happened. I _should've _been in their custody. But instead, I was the one making them bend to _my _mercy. Me. Fifteen guards should've been more than enough to keep me at bay. I should be in the vault jail block being interrogated by the Overseer and Zane. _Zane_.

"Nice work," Someone said from behind me. I turned around to look at a door. Zane with two guards flanking both sides of him had walked in. Zane's arms were folded. I frowned at him. From the moment he walked in, I was in conflict. He _was _a guard, but he was also a friend. He was the one who taught me how to fight, but not in this entirety of the kick ass sense where I went on autopilot not knowing where all of it came from.

"Zane," I said bitterly conflicted.

"You should surrender," Zane said voice without emotion.

"I can't do that Zane," I replied back, "You know that."

"Why not?" He asked frowning, "You're stuck in this box like me."

"There is an alternative," I suggested lightly.

"Name it."

"The overseer could banish us all."

"Smart ass."

"Well it's a thought," I replied.

"We need a new generation for the vault," Zane said, "You are a part of that, whether you like it or not."

"Why?"

"To keep the population healthy and young."

"Hmph," I said thinking about it, "Not interested. Not without my parents."

"You can't do anything for them now."

"I can avenge their wrongful banishment."

"It was I who suggested their banishment," He countered smirking, "As well as your friends' parents." He said it like none of anything we went through together meant anything to him, he said it not as a cover up. But it was for real, he meant it.

"You were one of us!" I yelled at him.

"_Was,_" He corrected, "What do you think I agreed to the program for huh? To help you all so you can prepare to escape into the wasteland? Wrong. I helped because I was prepping you to become part of an army."

"An _Army_?" I scoffed, "For what?"

"My superior's of course," Zane said crossing his arms, "Now, I believe our little meeting is over."

"You think I'm going to join an army for the Overseer and…._you_!" I demanded. I had lost all respect for Zane this very moment. He was a traitor. He betrayed me, he betrayed my friends and their parents, and most importantly he betrayed _my _parents. I felt a lot of anger rushing through me.

"You don't have a choice," Another but unfamiliar voice announced. It was one of the guards from near the overseer.

"You and your friends are to be subjected to us."

"In your dream pal," I said frowning.

"Give up Nate," Zane said pleadingly, "I don't want to shoot you."

"I'm afraid," I said frowning and looking up at a support beam that held up a balcony on the level above the one we were on, "You won't get that chance."

"Shoot him," the guard near the overseer ordered. I didn't give them a chance to. The slow-mo thing happened once again as I yanked my N99 out of its holster and swung it wildly shooting twice. My mark was left on both guards who were on either side of Zane, leaving him defenseless. I then made my way towards the beam on the opposite side of the overseer's side. Zane tried to beat me to it but went to tackle me. I literally jumped over his mid-air horizontal body placing my hand on his back to gain momentum and kept going. I ran up the beam and latched my hands on a metal circuit and climbed up the railing. I vaulted over to land on the balcony. I hesitated to look back at Zane who had a pained expression on his face as he rolled over to look at me. Why was he acting like this?

My thoughts were broken when the guard ordered his fellow guard near the overseer to fire down on me. "Shoot him down!" I reacted quickly by doing the slow-mo thing once again and shooting one bullet at each guard. I'd save the overseer for later. The guard who ordered my death grabbed the overseer and dodged while the other died from a bullet wound to the head. Guards started pouring out from both sides of the atrium on multiple levels. To my left on the balcony I was on a large group of guards came out wielding N99's, grenade launchers, and batons. What I didn't understand was why guards were armed with grenade launchers.

It seemed ironic that guards who were supposed to protect the vault from destruction and rebellion were using weapons that could obliterate anything in the blast range. One guard had a grenade launcher who was near my position, he was actually one of the guards on my balcony. "Do anything necessary to kill this bastard!" the guard with the overseer yelled.

I bolted down the hall closest to me and kept running as quickly as possible. They were behind me. I had to stop them from catching up. I saw a service door ahead with a switch on it. I pulled out my N99 and prepared to shoot it. The slow-mo thing came again. I pulled the trigger twice and they hit their mark. I slid on the ground as the door shut going down. I heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire and a grenade launcher going off. I safely got under the door and the bullets hit the door with loud "_Tink!" _sounds followed by an explosion. I got up breathing a bit hard and walked down the hall. It would take a while for the guards to get to me. I frowned as everything passed through my head.

Why was this happening? What was the purpose of this madness? Where did the slow-mo thing come from? Why did Zane betray us? What was going to happen to us now? I didn't have a single answer to any of these questions. I was so troubled, I about missed my point of access.

…..

**Cliffhanger! Yeah, those dreaded cliffhangers suck $$. I know. Parts written by Lauren were when Nathan and Jared were waiting to see the results of their handiwork in putting the abandoned vault back the way it was a long time ago, Lauren's reaction to the surprise of the guards in the residential suite, and calling for Nathan when he was first shot at by a grenade Launcher. Overall, she said my story needed a "Woman's Touch." After a long argument (Playful) I eventually agreed….**

**So please review and We'll be sure to get back to you on this thing.**


	5. In the End of the Life of Lies

**A/N: Uh…..yeah it's been a while. To tell you the truth, between work, life on a farm, and writing my own book, is royally kicking my ass. I've been busy and everything but I'm trying to finish this but life gets in the way sometimes. Anyways, just to let you know, me and my girlfriend are working on this. My friends are too lazy to make their own profile on Fanfiction so we share this account and they'll type it out, I fix the obvious mistakes and then I upload it. Sabor364 is my name for everything online, so if you see a user called that, you'll know who it is. Anyways, sorry about the wait, but this is the last chapter featuring the Vault. I liked how it came together. And it furthers my point if you listen to the one Author's Note I left near the end. Enjoy and review please!**

Chapter 4: In the End of the Life of Lies

I had made my way through the vents and found my way into the abandoned area of the Vault. It was quiet, dark, and eerie. The place would almost seem haunted because I could hear soft moaning, water dripping, and almost feel shadows dance around me. The sounds of distant metal being tapped on or moved made the place even scarier. But luckily, I knew that I wasn't the only one down in here. I had nineteen other friends who were with me in here. I just had to find them.

So many things were going through my mind. The one hundred people who were banished, my parents, my friends' parents, the endangerment we were in now, this "army" the overseer was trying to build for himself, this slow-mo thing that happened every time I was in a predicament. Everything; none of it made sense to me. I tried shaking it all out of my head and walk solemnly down the halls of this abandoned area. I had to find my friends. I knew they were in here. But where?

I was coming up on the main area we used during the survival program, or…..shit fuck I didn't know anymore. It was supposedly a training program for the Overseer's army. Did my parents know this? Did any of ours? No….they couldn't. They wouldn't have put us through it all if it weren't. The Overseer had pressured them into doing so, though he didn't know it. But why? Why would he need an army? To protect his ass or something? He had a huge freakin' vault door to do that.

I sighed finally fed up with the darkness and turned on my Pipboy light. This was so annoying. The way things were being run here. It was unethical how the overseer had banished our parents who were a part of one hundred other innocent citizens. What I still didn't get was why he would banish our parents if they were helping his "army," nevertheless banishing the old and withered. _If_ this wasteland outside is so fucking dangerous, why banish the elderly? They'd certainly die out there. The idea just pissed me off to a new level. It made things go through my head.

If I was a leader of this vault, I'd make sure that we'd do things ten times better. For starters, the vault would open trade relations with whomever was outside, if possible, send scouts, let the elderly retire if they wanted and they'd get an income of eighty vault credits every payday. I'd make sure everyone knew how to defend themselves. I'd do so much more than what the overseer was doing now. He has driven off support by banishing those one hundred Vault dwellers and us who whose families were torn apart.

It was a lot to take in. Too much if you ask me. But I couldn't dwell on the events that had already happened. It would drive me to insanity. I tried to calm myself down. I heard voices of my friends. One of them sounding in agony, feminine sobbing; that made my heart skip a beat. It was Lauren's. Something happened….but what happened?

I could hear her vividly, even though she was on the other side of a wall.

"Damn it," I heard someone over her sobs, "I can't turn this P.A off!" There were loud banging sounds. I looked at a speaker.

"It's not going to turn off that way John," I heard Jared's voice.

"I know I know," I heard John's voice.

"He saved our lives and he's gone," I heard her voice. Lauren's voice.

"Are you two sure he's dead?" Zack asked.

"He was about to be shot when he yelled for us to close the door." Jordyn said shaken.

I frowned at the memory. I remembered it vividly. The scarred image was forever in my mind. Lauren's terrified expression was more than I could bear. I wanted to find her, let her know I was okay.

I heard something move and someone walk out. "Poor girl," A voice said and it was definitely one of the survival program students, "She won't get over this loss."

"Why?" Another asked.

"I think she loved him."

My legs were instantly full of cement. _Did I hear that right?_ Lauren? Love me? That was a new one. Yeah, we got a long fine and she was a good friend. But never did I think that she'd have feelings for me. I let it go. I had a lot of shit on my mind for now; I didn't need to give my hopes up. I continued my frown and continued to walk down the hall. They all thought I was dead….fuck. I had to go find them quickly. But fate it seems has a weird way of working.

I came to a door and I walked into something rather skinny and was my height. She had long hair tear stricken eyes and a beautiful angel-like face. It was her.

"I'm sorry," She said not looking up at me.

"Lauren?" I asked.

She snapped her neck up at me eyes widen mouth agape. She started trembling all over. "Nate?" The words barely escaped her mouth.

"I'm alive and still kicking," I responded giving one of my rare apologetic smiles, "You look like you've seen a ghost." She was still in shock tears still flowing from her eyes. "Here, let me fix that." I wiped the tears from her eyes with my sleeve. "There, you better no—Ooff!"

She had me held in a hug so tight I couldn't breathe regularly. "I thought you were dead you big moron!" She yelled.

"I'm not," I tried to interject but she was rambling on.

"Don't you ever do that to me again," She yelled apparently not thinking, "You asshole." She was pounding away at my chest like I was a punching bag. Thank god she wasn't actually punching, that would've been outright hostility.

"I'll try," I retorted almost laughing. It was strangely comforting having her show this kind of concern, which was weird because I have never needed it.

"Oh!" She said blushing horribly, "I forgot! The others think you're dead too!" I smiled at her embarrassment. It was so obvious now. I had always thought she just thought of me as a wild kid like she did Jordyn. I could recall many times she'd call us troublemakers.

"Everyone!" Lauren yelled as we came through the doors, "He's alive!" I was faced with a wave of people.

"Nathan?"

"Nathan!"

"Oh my god he is!"

"Nate!"

"Uh…." I said awkwardly, "What up?"

"What's up?" Jordyn said walking over and punching me in the abdomen, "You asshole, we thought they killed you. Wait. How'd you get here anyways?"

"I ran, fought, and escaped the Atrium to get here," I said, "By the way. It was Zane. He's a traitor."

"Of course he is," Zack spoke up, "He's helped us with the survival program. He's still undercover."

"No," I responded, "He told me that he was the one who suggested the banishment of our parents and the rest of them."

"WHAT!" Everyone yelled at once.

"Listen," I said sitting down at a chair, "The overseer wants an Army, for what I don't know. But this came out of Zane's mouth himself. He told me that he was never on our side. He only oversaw our teaching because it was teaching us stuff that the Overseer could use in his army."

"His army?" Katlin asked, "Why the hell would he want an army?"

"Beats me," I answered, "But he had a lot of security trying to catch me. They were coming from somewhere. There were what, only thirty on the force? No this was like a hundred. I literally mean that they replaced our parents the others."

"Wait," Jared spoke up this time, "Do you think that's what this is all about? Us being in an army? Was that the _Survival Program's _reason for existence?"

"If it is," a kid named Alan said, "Then why are we doing this? Hiding out in the freaking abandoned area? If that's what we were meant for, why fight it?"

"You're sounding like you'd want it." Brooke stated.

"Maybe I am," He shot back, "It's better to be on the winning side than on the side that's going to be caught or killed."

"Calm down dude," Matt spoke, "We're all here now, there's nothing we can do. They're not going to show any mercy on those who surrender. You'll just be locked up in jail."

"Better there than here." He got up and walked out the room.

"What's his problem?" Brook asked.

"We're all a little stressed," I spoke up, "He's not thinking clearly. But if he wants to go back, let him otherwise we'll be no better than the Overseer." Everyone looked at me. "That goes for everyone. If you don't want to fight, you can leave to the Overseer and join his side, I won't hold it against you." _For now._

"We're going then," Someone said. I looked over at a few people. There were six of them, four boys and two girls.

"Fine then," I said nodding, "If Alan still wants to go, find him. But the Overseer's just not going to let you all walk out of here without some suspicion. We'll take you as prisoner and release you to them. They won't believe anything else."

"Fine."

A few minutes later, we had every one of them rallied up. "Now this is it," I said to the ones who wished to leave, "Once you leave, you'll probably never see us again."

"What do you mean by that?" Alan asked.

"You're better off not knowing," I responded. I knew what my plan was, even if they didn't. "Jared has already given the Overseer a warning telling him that we're releasing prisoners." They nodded. "Give us your weapons. It won't look convincing if you're all carrying weapons."

"Fine." So we confiscated their weapons.

"Open the door," I told Jared, "Everyone else, pistols drawn and ready to fire if needed. Don't fire unless they fire first."

As the door opened, we husked our one of out "prisoners" out into the hall first. The Overseer and a squad of guards were there. The guards had their guns trained on us as expected. The Overseer looked at me as if he didn't get something about the situation. "What's your game Nathan?" He demanded.

"There's no game," I shot back, "We don't kill anyone who chooses to leave us. They join us and if they want to leave, then we let them. They chose your side, not ours."

There was a tense moment of silence as you could see both sides were trigger happy at the moment and waiting for the other to pull something. We released our Hostages one by one letting them go out of the door. As soon as the last one was out, the door was shut and locked. After that we all walked towards the main room. There was an eerie silence. No one spoke for the remained of their time in here. I looked at some of my friends who seemed like the situation was hopeless. Part of me said to believe that, the other part yelled at me not to. After all there were only thirteen of us here. It was me, Lauren, Jordyn, Jessica, Jared, Angela, Brooke, Matt, Eric, Erika, John, Christina, and Kaitlyn. It wasn't good odds against an entire freaking company of Vault security guards. I silently walked over and grabbed my laptop terminal and started working on the battery. This thing better have some answers. That's what I wanted. What was the purpose of this army? Why did this have to happen? Why couldn't things just stay the same? I always had a feeling growing up, that something would happen that would change my life forever. But never once in my life did I think that things would be the way they are now. A lot of my friends just wandered around aimlessly, trying to gather their thoughts I suppose. My work was almost complete. I was hooking the fission battery into the laptop terminal now.

"What are you doing?" Jordyn asked walking over.

"Remember this thing from a few years back?" I asked frowning and continuing my work on it.

"Yeah," He replied, "That's that terminal isn't it? The one we hid away until the heat died down. And we forgot about it."

"I'm hoping we'll get some answers," I replied finishing some adjustments and turning the power on, "As soon as this comes on, the internal Vault-tec wireless link will be updated with all the new information over the years we missed. Ah, here we go."

The terminal turned on and I allowed it to update the information really quick. I was good on a terminal, but Jared would be suited for this. "Yo Jared," I called for him, "Come take a look at this." He came over.

"What's up?" He asked then saw it, "Oh hell. Okay, I'll get to work on it."

"Tell me what you can make out of it when you're done," I replied. He nodded and was already on it. I walked over to the rest of the group. I was definitely thinking of trying to escape this damned Vault. I had no reason to be here anymore. I sat down on top of a table. We were trained to be in an army. An army for what exactly? Our training had gifted us with the skills to kill, survive, adapt to situations, infiltrate, and work as a team. We were taught about various weapons, but most we could never get up close and personal to use. Why did we fall for it so easily? Why did our parents leave us to this fate? They had to have assumptions; there was no way around it. My resolve of this problem was becoming clearer. This is what I knew so far; I was leaving the Vault to get away from being forced to becoming a pawn for someone else.

I walked around aimlessly going through my thoughts. By 10:00 that night, everyone was tired and hungry. We had no food, no water, and no warm bed to sleep on. We had mats; that was all. There was one mat left. It was either me or Lauren who'd get it. Jared was still on the terminal trying to crack it. I chose her. Everyone else was fast asleep.

"Take it," I said to her simply, "It's the last one."

"But….." Lauren stuttered, "It's a cold floor. You'll freeze."

"You will too," I said, "That's the point."

"We'll share it then." My heart skipped a beat.

"You sure?" I asked, "You said I was a smelly boy who had always overworked himself."

"Yes," She replied, "I think we all smell Nate."

"Good point." So wearily I laid down next to her my back against the wall facing her….next thing I knew, I was out.

When I woke up, I found myself sandwiched between the wall and Lauren. Her back was pressed against my front. As much as I liked the idea, I had to see what progress Jared made today. I gently got up and hopped over her beautiful sleeping form. I walked over to where Jared was and he was asleep, sprawled out in sitting position at the desk. I was the first up as usual.

"I'm not asleep," Jared mumbled, "just resting eyes…."

"Did you find anything of value?" I asked.

"Yeah," He said leaning up yawning, "There's a lot of stuff the Overseer was keeping from us. I don't know the extent to it yet, but there's an outside force at work here. The Overseer is working for someone who is not in the Vault. Turns out, the Vaults are nothing more than testing grounds for experiments."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well," He said yawning then spoke, "They're all meant to protect us sure, but experiments were issued by some kind of outside organization."

"What kind of experiments?" I asked.

"The kind where some where some of them involved leaving vault doors designed not to close when the bombs hit," He replied, "The experiment for our vault was growing up in a safe environment to be trained as troops for this organization and apparently everyone but us were in on it. Oh….and our vault is not 364. It's Vault 64. The 364 naming was the attempt to hide other outside organizations from interfering."

"Do you know anything about this organization?" I asked.

"Not much," Jared said, "all I know is that from what I've read, they're goal is to destroy all radiation and become the leader in the world. They use extreme methods to get what they want. The killing of innocents, annexing settlements. I'm telling you they aren't good news."

"In other words they're Tyrants." I deadpanned.

"Pretty much," Jared replied.

"Well that just gives my resolve more of a purpose," I said walking towards the lockers.

"What do you mean?" Jared asked getting up.

"I'm leaving this vault," I put simply, "I don't have to be a genius to know that this tyrant organization will attempt to take over the wasteland outside. I don't want to be a part of their little scheme." I pulled out my backpack from my locker. I slammed the locker unintentionally, and it woke everyone up.

"Alright everyone get up," I said, "We've got to get out of here."

"Why?" Someone groaned.

"Jared?" I turned to him. He nodded and explained the situation to them. Their expressions were unreadable. "So that's why I'm leaving. You could come with me and we'll get out of here and fight these guys, or we'll just sit here and wait to either be killed or forced to work for them."

"I'm going," Lauren said instantly.

"Me too." Jordyn said clasping his hand on my shoulder, "I can't let my best friend get himself killed.

"What the hell," Jared said sighing, "I'm with you."

Eventually everyone was in. We just had to come up with steps to get out, and where to proceed. "So what now?" Lauren asked. I decided we'll go step by step, first through explanatory, and then we'd implement them.

"First off," I said, "Prep for escape. Carry only what we'll need. We'll wear are survival armor for now, carry an extra set of clothes, rope, and the mats for sleeping on." We changed into our survival armor which was joint protection, and a modified version of Vault security armor with neck guards and pauldron's.

"Next we're going to have raid the Vault's supplies tonight," I replied, "It'll put a hurting on all of them. We'll execute three different raids at the same time tonight, Mid-night, during the thirty minute interval of the shift change."

"What are we going to raid?" Jessica asked out loud.

"The Rations chamber, Armory, and Medical Ward," I replied, "So when we leave, be prepared to carry a little more than just the stuff we packed. We'll do three teams of four except the medical ward, the supplies aren't that heavy. Two should be sufficient. Jared can you hack the doors from here?"

"The outlet over there will do nicely," He replied talking about an interfacing panel.

"Okay," I replied, "Set it up and get ready for tonight."

….

Later that night, two minutes before midnight, I was lying patiently in a vent right near the Medical ward. The way the vent was designed there was a drop off right in the ceiling of the ward. I had one person with me and that was Lauren. I was listening intently to the conversation below.

"The Overseer wants these supplies locked up until we move them to a new location," I heard a guard say.

"Well it'll have to wait until morning," Another guard said, "We're just here to guard it. And shoot those assholes who're in a rebellion on sight, okay?"

"Yeah, I know," The other said, "You want to take the in or outside?"

"I'll take inside."

"Okay," The other said and I heard him pick something up, "I'll take a chair outside then." I heard the familiar medical ward door open and close. The ward was separated into four rooms, the waiting room, the supply closet, the office, and the examination room. The vent I was in, would drop me into the office.

"Lauren," I whispered, "I'm going in." A generator turned on in the hallway. The midnight recharge is what it was.

"Okay," She replied.

I immediately dropped feet first, my weight forcing the vent panel open. I dropped with my pistol drawn. The darkness of the room easily hid me. I rolled over into the corner of the office door behind the hinges and waited for a minute just to make sure I wasn't heard. The door was open and I peered out. The guard who was supposed to be guarding inside the Ward was sitting at a table away from the generator. His back was to me and he didn't really have light back where I was, just the one lamp where he was at the desk. I crept up behind him, the noise of the generator swallowing the sounds of my movement. I pulled out a baton and hit the guard as hard as I could in the back of the head. He was unconscious. I dragged his body out of the chair and into the examination room and onto a table. I scanned the examination room and quickly grabbed any medical supplies deemed useful. Medical shears, surgery tools, Bandages, wraps, splints, tubing, etc. I wrapped it up in kits and piled them in a duffle bag.

I moved into the supply room and grabbed everything I could. Stimpaks, Rad-away, Med-X, Rad-X, and Blood packs. I got about over a hundred stimpak needles and enough other medical supplies to keep us alive for a good year or two provided we don't get killed first. That's all I could get from the medical ward.

"Lauren," I spoke, "Drop the rope." A rope dropped the end hanging out the vent. I tied the duffle bags with the end of the rope. "Alright pull them up." She pulled up the supplies and I latched the vent lid back on. I walked towards the generator and went to the left of it. There was a vent beside it, so I went in and eventually found my way back to our abandoned area. Lauren met me at my exiting point of the vent.

"Glad you're back," She said giving me a quick hug, "I've already dropped the medical supplies off in the survival hall."

"That's good," I replied hugging her back, "Let's get moving shall we?" We continued into the survival hall.

The team that was supposed to raid the food supply had come back, but the weapon team had yet to return.

"Talk to me Jared," I said walking up to him and his terminal, "Where are they?"

"You should've sent two more with them," He said, "They're loading everything they can in crates and sliding them into the straight shot." The straight shot was just a term we used for a vent that is a straight path to the survival area.

"How many crates are there?" I asked.

"There are five total," Jared said, "But they seem to be having trouble with the fifth. I can't see what it is."

"Alright," I replied, "I'm heading down there. Are the other crates already in the straight shot?"

"They just need to be pulled out," Jared replied.

"Okay," I replied, "Matt, Zack. Get those crates through the vents, use the rope okay?"

"On it," Matt replied and Zack nodded to it. They headed for the assigned vent. I walked towards another duct and climbed in it. The way in was easy, not too much of a complex path. I came out in the hall outside the armory after watching a guard walk by. I closed the vent and walked right up to the door that was the armory. I knocked on it six consecutive times. I heard the muffled sound of Jordyn.

"Jared open the door." The door instantly opened and inside was Jordyn, Jessica, Brooke, and Erika. All of them were looking at something in a crate.

"Hey guys what's the hold up?" I asked.

"Look at this," Jessica spoke. I looked inside to see some kind of strange device. It was like a scanner of some sort only it had an optic camera piece on it. It was hand held and there were four of them.

"Hmmm," I spoke, "It looks like a targeting designator. Is this what has been keeping you guys in here so long?"

"Yeah," Jordyn said, "We didn't know what to make of it. Should we take it?"

"We can have Jared look at them," I said, "See what he thinks."

"Alright," Jordyn commented, "Help me out here." I helped him pick it up and slide it into the straight shot.

"Okay what did we get?" I asked.

"Mostly N99's and a few grenade launchers both stocked with ammo," Erika commented, "Other than that, a few repair kits, and attachments."

"And you've cleaned this place out huh?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Good," I replied, "Let's get going."

…..

The next morning, there was no doubt that we had stirred up a hornets next with our recent activities. Jared got up early and was monitoring the security cameras thanks to his amazing hacking skills, so he knew what was going on. Turns out, that the targeting designators we commandeered were actually high tech devices similar to binoculars and had different types of visual displays such as Thermal, Night, Kinetic, and X-ray visions. They were known as Scouting Reconnaissance Devices or SRD's for short. We tested them out too. Jordyn, being a dumbass, was pointing it at Lauren and switched through the views and saw through her clothes and armor when he set it to X-Ray mode, which really got him in trouble via a beating. I may have caught a glimpse but I wasn't saying anything. I wasn't a pervert like that, and I still had morals even though there was a hint of redness going on over my expression over the glimpse. Jordyn…yeah he learned his lesson. Thank god Jessica wasn't there. She was using the bathroom the entire time. She'd have a cow, and all of us agreed not to mention it ever again.

Jared had taken a break from the computer and I was just browsing through the massive amount of information. That's when I discovered something that raised my hopes, the Overseer's historical documents. The first few files were just useless bullshit about power expenses and irrigation; you know, the stuff I already know how to deal with. But there were two files that were hidden. One was concerning some kind of Technology called a G.E.C.K which was a massive terraforming module designed to counteract the post-nuclear fallout's radiation. It was supposed to be the size of a large suitcase. The current location of one in the Carolina's was unknown.

The next file I came across was a file containing information on a second vault entrance. It was located in the abandoned area behind a caved in portion. The only way through was through vents but they had been blocked off by makeshift barricades composed of instructor desks and metal panels. The reason for the abandonment of this section of the Vault was because there was an organization that had the knowledge of vaults all over the post-apocalyptic United States. If they discovered what the purpose of the Vault was, it would ensure a war. So by order of the third Overseer a long time ago, the halls near the entrance were caved in and all activities in this section were shut down leaving it abandoned. That's when the automatic registry functions used by the overseer renamed this Vault 364 from the original Vault 64.

"Hey everyone," I said over my shoulder, "I just found a way out of this dump."

"Yeah the Vault Entrance chamber near the grand atrium," Jordyn said dully still avoiding eye contact from Lauren.

"Well that's the harder way." I said, "Through all that security that is. But there's another door here in the Abandoned area." I quickly got them up to speed.

"So what are we waiting for?" Zack asked impatiently, "We can still find this thing before noon."

"I know where it's at," I replied, "All we have to do is pack our stuff up, and we're gone." So that was that, we got started immediately. Jordyn and I had went ahead and looked for this newfound exit that we had no idea about until twenty minutes ago, while everyone was getting everything packed and ready.

"Well there's the cave in," Jordyn said as we looked at it. A second later a piece of rusted metal fell from the ceiling.

"Yep," I agreed holding an SRD in my left hand. Jordyn had one as well. "You ready to field test these things?"

"Uh…."

"Without looking at women naked."

"Hey!" Jordyn said defensively, "I swear to god I did not mean to do that!"

"Don't swear to god."

"Okay well," Jordyn revised himself, "I did not mean that at all. I was playing with the controls and boom, naked Lauren."

"Yeah just don't let it happen again." I said rather annoyed with the event.

"Or she'll beat the shit out of me," He resolved.

"Or I will," I resolved his resolve.

"That just gives me more reinforcement not to attempt to do so."

"Good choice."

"So let's see what these things have got." He said changing the subject. We both raised our SRD's and switched through the modes until we came to X-ray vision. It took a few seconds but the scanners did their job. There was a metal room on the other side with a large cog-like door embedded in it.

"Yep it's there," Jordyn said thankfully, "Let's see about those vents." We scanned the area which took around five minutes.

"I've got the vent," I said as we walked around the hall, "There's the barricade." We got to work moving all the junk out the way. I think we were almost done when we heard Eric's voice over the Intercom.

"Nathan, Jordyn," He said urgently, "We're going to have company up front. Get up here!"

"You go," Jordyn said instantly, "I'll stay here and keep digging through this shit."

"Alright," I said, "But if you find yourself in trouble, come running."

"I will." And he got digging after those words.

I made my way back to the survival hall where everyone was all ready. I grabbed my own stuff and Jordyn's and walked over to the laptop terminal where Jared was. "What do we got?" I asked, "A group of security?"

"No," Jared said, "Much worse. Remember what our parents said to us about Power Armor?"

"You've got to be kidding me." I replied.

"Look at it for yourself." Jared said.

I looked at the screen of the security footage and there it was. Three People in bulky black power armor were talking with the Overseer and the security guard who saved him. The Power Armor was bulky and smooth with an inbuilt fan on their backs. You couldn't hear them, but you could see where they were which was down the hallway from the locked entrance of the abandoned area. The Overseer pointed in the abandoned area's direction. All three power armored soldiers walked towards the abandoned area's way.

"Alright everyone," I said in remote fear, "We've got to leave. Now! Get to where Jordyn is!" I yanked the laptop terminal out the outlet and gave it and Jordyn's bags to Jared and Jessica. "Get moving I'll cover you. "

I pulled out a Grenade Launcher. If there was one thing we learned about Power Armor, it was that it was nearly invulnerable to any pistol. But a Grenade Launcher should at least slow them down. "I'm staying with you," I heard Eric say.

"Fine," I answered, "Use Grenade Launchers. It's the only thing that'll put a dent in that armor."

"Okay," Eric said and we walked out the survival hall behind the others.

"Nate," I heard someone and stopped as Eric kept walking. It was Lauren.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Don't die." She said and giving me a kiss on the cheek. There was an initial warm feeling that coursed through my body, but I remembered I was trying to save her and the others from these Power Armored people.

"I'll try." I responded smirking, "Please go with the others. I'll catch up in a second."

"You better," she said pointing at me. And with that she was off. I continued my trek with Eric. We stood there waiting.

"Jared told me that door can only operate two more times before it breaks down," Eric said to me, "The Vault Cog I mean. And there's only one working control panel and that's inside the Vault."

"Well," I said sighing, "We'll only need it two times."

"Yeah," Eric replied, "Let me get the controls when we leave. I'm the fastest runner. I'll be able to outrun that door before it closes."

"That's true," I agreed, "Okay fine."

Our conversation was cut short when there was a loud unhealthy bang against the Abandoned Entrance door. "Here they come," Eric said raising his Grenade Launcher. There was another one. I could see a dent this time. That Power Armor was strong. There was another pound, then another, and another. The next time a black fist came through the metal door and pulled itself back out. Two Yellowish glowing eyes peeked through the hole and then moved away. There was a massive slam against the door and it wrenched open as three Power Armored Soldiers walked through it. We lit their asses up. Though it did do anything but make them stumble. They broke out into a run as we reloaded. We fired again. This time hitting the same soldier and knocked him off his feet.

That's when we ran. As we got there, only two had followed us. We slipped in the vent that was open and our friends had clearly gone through. One of the soldiers attempted to grab me at the last second but failed.

"They've gone through!" One of them said under his helmet, "Try to cut them off."

We exited on the other side of the caved in area and spotted the entrance. The Cog door was open and our friends were waiting outside it, in what looked like a cave. When they saw us, I could see the relief in their eyes.

"I'll get the controls, Eric said going to them near a bare section of wall. I walked out the Cog doors and Lauren gave me a hug which I quickly returned. I looked back at Eric. We were free. The only thing standing in our way was this cave that had to have an exit somewhere. All thirteen of us were going to be free of that damned plot once and for all.

Eric pressed something on the control panel and an intense sound of an alarm went off. The controls large generator and equipment started to run. He started towards us. My heart sank as I saw something behind him. The wall sank into the ground revealing another room.

"Eric run!" I yelled. But the alarm was too loud. One of the black Power Armored soldiers stepped out and grabbed Eric and flung him into a railing with one arm.

"Run!" Eric gasped out. We didn't hear it but we saw it on his expression and his lips as he struggled. The alarm and intense sound of metal sliding against one another was too much to bare. "Get away!" He was yelling it at us. The Cog was had rolled halfway before we saw Eric pull his pistol out as he tried to sit up, but he was rewarded with a green bolt from some kind of weapon the soldier wielded. Eric fell limp as the soldier looked at us through the closing gigantic Cog.

When the deafening sound of the Cog with a _64 _engraved on it, moving into place for its final time and the echoes of it finally left the cave was finished, it was silence. It was dreadful, eerie silence. Eric…..was gone. The boy had always been a good kid. He was loyal, ready to act, and I always knew he would protect us from anything he could. And he had, with the cost of his life he had slowed down the Power Armored Murderer from getting to us. I don't know how long we had stood there. But it was the faint whimpers of one of the girls that broke me from my trance. I sighed and started to walk down the tunnel.

Another death, because of someone's stupid ambition, had befallen us like a plague. I didn't know what I felt more. Pain, sadness, or anger? Yeah there was definitely anger right now. I had to cool down a little. Part of me wondered if Eric knew something like this was coming. He always had an optimistic way of saying he was going to die. I guess he was right.

"Come on," I said frowning, "Let's head out. We need to get out of here before they find a way around." I knew the mourning wasn't over but we had little time for that if we couldn't put some distance between us and the Power Armored soldiers. "We don't know if it's safe down here."

I saw some of the girls wiping tears away and I Matt did the same. Eric was his best friend. I remember seeing them play poker all the time just for fun. Eventually they followed silently and we started down the tunnel. There was a point where there was an overhang that was a bit too high for any of us to reach. After we walked pass that it was starting to get a bit eerie. There was a large wall of stalactites and stalagmites at one point with an underground lake on the other side.

"Shh!" I heard Brooke say and we were quiet for a second. We heard several footsteps that weren't ours. They were heavy.

We looked out near the water and saw lights on the other side with black figures walking. It was the Power Armored soldiers. They were running towards a set of boulders. I knew there was another way in here. We waited for them to pass even though they were thirty meters away.

"Let's go," I encouraged. We kept moving as quickly as possible. A few minutes of walking and we finally came up on a large cavernous cliff. There was a path along the side from a drop off and you could see massive holes in the cave in the ceiling where the sun shined through. But we heard an unfamiliar sound. It was like two turbo fans in the maintenance area only there was a different sound to it. Then we saw it. A huge green aerial vehicle was hovering down through one of the two holes in the ceiling. Another came through the other and landed on a cliff on the other side of the Cavern. A squad of Power Armored soldiers got out and started patrolling the path back towards the way we came only on the other side. We could see the first aerial vehicle hovered down to the floor of the cavern and dropped off some kind of floating robotic spheres. There were at least twelve of them and all scattered among the floor with spotlights. They were searching for us. The aerial vehicle hovered back out the hole.

We kept moving going uphill and we banked into a tunnel. "They've got planes?" John said exasperated, "Damn who the hell are we dealing with here? How do you fight someone with that kind of equipment?"

"I know," Matt said, "Power Armor and flying vehicles? This organization's prepared for anything."

"I don't know," Erika said, "But let's get out of this place before we start wondering how to fight them. Live today, fight tomorrow."

We came up on another wall of stalactites that were higher in elevation this time and was overlooking the same cavern. We stopped again hearing the familiar propellers and saw a aerial vehicle hover back down through a hole and started firing some kind of large weapon that was attached to its bottom. It fired in different direction. But when the casing hit the floors on top the cliffs something emerged from them. The floating spherical robots and one of them was on the cliff we stood on five minutes ago. To make things worse, there were three Power Armored soldiers coming around the rocky bend where we walked out of a tunnel onto the cliff. Shit. They were catching up with us.

"Alright let's double time it," I said, "They're catching up." We just sort of jogged down the tunnel this time. It's a good thing we did because the aerial vehicle just launched another casing at the wall of stalactites we were peering through. We came to an abrupt stop when we came to a drop off that could be jumped. I jumped over quickly and turned to my friends. Jordyn had followed me.

"Come on," Jordyn said, "We'll catch you if you fall." And so we did. Lauren jumped and was about to slip but I quickly grabbed her around the waist and spun her behind me to a safer area with ground.

"Thanks," She said quickly and blushed a little.

"No problem," I replied. When everyone was over on our side we continued our jog down the tunnels. There was another overhang above us that looked like it had been scaled before but we stayed on our original path down the tunnel.

The next time we stopped we saw that there was dynamite lining the cave walls attached to wooden planks. Then I thought about it. Someone was going to cave this tunnel in. "Look at this," Zack said kneeling down and holding a piece of wick. "I bet anything that this thing leads to somewhere safer."

"Let's try it then," I replied. We continued to follow the tunnel and the wick. It was almost a thirty minute walk or more, I don't know how long exactly but it took forever. This seemed to give us a bit of hope. There was a way out of here without being followed. We came up on a metal door that was similar to maintenance room doors in the Vault. I opened it and we walked in. It was a bare room with nothing inside. As we all walked in, the door shut behind us.

"Shit," I muttered. We were trapped.

"Fuck," John said, "The door won't open."

There was movement coming from the center of the room and the floor opened up. Coming out of the floor was a screen and what looked like a security camera. When the screen turned on my heart dropped. My dad was on it.

"Hello everyone," He said.

"Dad?" I replied.

"Yes son," He replied, "I know you're all confused. I can understand that. I can also see the hurt over your expressions. Listen you all, we don't have much time before the connection is disrupted by the A.I that comes from the very people that has probably invaded the vault right now. So listen and don't talk." Some of us nodded. "First of all, your parents are all okay. We weren't banished from the Vault like you'd assume. We were taken to a facility out into the Carolina Wasteland. The truth is, we were forced to live under the influence of an organization known as the Enclave. It's an organization that hides behind a mask designed to make things the way they want it. No mutations, or anything that isn't one of them. The survival program was meant to be a cover up for your training as an Enclave Agent. Unfortunately for the rest of the Enclave, we didn't want you all being forced to live under their rule. That's why we left willingly and tried to give you subtle hints of another possible exit."

Okay now we were definitely confused, especially me. What hints was he talking about.

"That little incident Nate, Jordyn, and Jared pulled wasn't as much of a mystery as everyone suspected. Your parents and I were watching you the entire time. So we took the laptop and inserted information that was falsely suspected of being the Overseer's notes. The G.E.C.K and the escape were put in thanks to Donny and I. We believed that you had found a way out of the clutches of the Overseer. Now you are here. Is this all who made it?"

"Yes," I replied, "A few stayed behind to go willingly with the Overseer. Eric died when he was closing the Vault 64 door."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Dad said, "Listen okay? There is a shoot on sight order to all Enclave soldiers for any of you. I can't go against the orders or speak out without dying myself. So please, don't come looking for us. We wanted you to escape the influence of the Enclave. Go West or North. Those are places without the Enclave. To the North, there is the Capital Wasteland Brotherhood of Steel. I have many close friends in it. The Capital Wasteland is the lands of a new territory or nation if you want to call it that called New D.C. A BOS Elder is the proud leader of the lands and they are very influential, they rule protecting its inhabitants and not taking from them unless need be. To the West is the Mojave. It's under the joint rule of the local BOS and a large faction known as the NCR. The NCR own the land and the BOS help keep mutual enemies out. They are usually hostile towards each other but the factions had come to a truce for the sake of the Mojave's citizens. They are both led by a mutual benefactor of the wasteland that helped them both out with keeping a faction known as Caesar's Legion out and crippling it. Those are the only two places that would be safe for any of you. I'm asking you to flee. It may be too late for the few people in this land to escape the influence of the Enclave, but not you."

"But…" I started.

"No buts," Dad replied, "I am asking you for your safety. Now, we have rigged everything up for your escape so far. Since you're here, that means that the rigged Vault 64 door has closed for the last time. We rigged it that way to give you all some more escape time. The death of Eric is unsettling but we can't do anything about it now. If I'm correct, the Enclave sent in flying machines known as Vertibird's to deploy search teams correct?"

"Yes," Jordyn said, "We escaped them too."

"I can see that," Dad said, "Now I want you to press that switch next to the door." As he said it, a section of wall folded up revealing a door switch, like the ones in the Vault. "Cover your ears when you do." Matt was the closest one so he pressed it. We covered our ears, but even then we heard it. A massive explosion erupted on the other side of the door.

When it was all over, Dad continued. "There," He said, "That should keep them off your tracks for a long time. You are far away from the Vault. Probably ten miles now, in a area the Enclave have no presence to unless it is scouts. Good luck everyone. Your parents are counting on you to survive. That's all we ever wanted for you, to be free. I have to go now. I don't know when or if we'll see you again. We are proud of you all and we hope for the best. Be careful out there, and stick together. Good luck." The screen turned off and on the opposite end of the room, a section of wall started opening up.

"Dad!" I yelled to the screen, "Dad!" I pounded it with my fist. "Damn it!" I wanted to know more, I wanted to at least say goodbye if this was indeed the last time I'd see him, but I couldn't. He and the others risked everything for me and my friends. _Shit, _this was so fucked up.

The section of wall had finally sank into the ground and revealed another section of tunnel only this time there was a light at the end of it.

"Come on Nate," I heard the gentle voice of Lauren who held onto my arm and motioned for me to follow, "Let's get out of here." As bad as I wanted to lash out at something, I couldn't do it to any of the others. We were played, this entire time. Everything was a lie, everything we were taught, was not for our preparation out into the Wasteland in case of some horrible accident in the Vault. It was to train us to run away from this damned group called the Enclave. Our parents lied to us, everything was all based around lies. It made me so angry at the whole situation. It made me want to…..fight even more now.

In the end it wasn't even worth it. All that training we went through was originally mean to make us into soldiers. I worked so hard to please my parents, so hard to make them proud of what we were doing. All that time was wasted on getting us to become soldiers. After trying so hard, we had failed the survival course. But we came up with a new way to live. Escape the Vault. We had done it. I had to accept that as there was no going back even though I would've changed everything if I could. I'd still be with my parents, or at least stayed with them and I would've saved Eric.

_(A/N: Listen to, __**In the End**__, by Linkin Park. It adds a nice feel to this part because of the revelations)_

I sighed and nodded. She was right. I closed my eyes for a second trying to cool myself down. I looked at Lauren who had been gazing at me this entire time. The others were making their way out. "Let's go, but where?"

"Where ever you go," She said smiling and holding my free hand, "I'll follow." That cooled me down a little but warmed me up with a fuzzy feeling; one that replaced the searing magma of anger that had coursed through me like a plague.

"Thank you," I replied smiling back. We started to walk out and once we left the room, the wall started to return to its original area. The outside of it looked like a cave wall, as if nothing was there. We walked out the cave hand in hand solemnly.

As we walked out onto a cliff that overlooked the unfamiliar Carolina Wastes, I knew things were going to get better even if we had to fight for it.

"So what do we do now?" I heard Jared ask as we gazed over the land.

"I mean I know they wanted us to," Brooke commented, "But I don't think any of us could run away from this now."

"I'm not running," I said, "They've ruined enough lives to keep me going now. I'm not quitting until they are gone."

"I'm with you," Lauren said smiling.

"Well it's settled then," Jordyn said, "Lead on."

"Wait what?" I commented. Me lead?

"Yeah," Matt said, "You've gotten us out of everything they've thrown at us so far. So why not?"

"Um…" I said as it was a heavy burden, "okay?" Apparently, it was unanimous and I had no say so. So now we were staying here. Yippy, I was leader of a bunch of hooligans who were going to fight for freedom. "Well. Let's do this right then."

We looked out over the wasteland. A dead forest spotted the land ahead with numerous rocks and boulders. The Enclave didn't have a presence here huh? I could see why, unless the entire world looked like this. In the distance was a road of some kind. I didn't know how long it would take to find a prewar settlement, but hopefully if it was inhabited, they wouldn't be hostile. "Come on guys," I said. And with that, we set off into the glorious hellish looking wasteland…..

…

_Part one: Mayhem of a Classified Vault – Complete_

…..

**A/N: I kind of felt it was a bit rushed but I wanted to get it out of the Vault just as much as you guys did. So what did you think? Reviews are amazing even if it is critizism, just don't troll or overdo it. If you've got a problem with anything or the direction, PM me. I'll work out the issues as best as I can without the original plot deterring. It's what convinced me to finish up the first Part the way I did. So review or PM, either way I can try to continue.**


	6. A New World

**A/N: So it's been a while since I last worked on this. To be honest, I think I'm addicted to Betheseda Softworks games. I often find myself playing their games if I don't want to go online with X-box live. So here it is guys. The next chapter of Fallout: New Carolina.**

…_.._

"_I'd like to say that everything fell into place the moment we walked out into the Carolina Wasteland. But it didn't. We quickly found out that it was going to be a struggle to get across it. For better or worse we were out here, preparing ourselves for a fight if we had to."_

…

Part two- Educational Survival

Chapter 5: A new world

We had made our way over to the road. By the looks of it, it was a prewar Highway. "Hey guys," I asked, "Which way?" I knew that we were traveling directly east while in the caves. But we still had gone east to find the Highway we saw from the cliffs. "What do you guys say?" I asked, "Left or right?"

"I say right," Jordyn spoke up, "It'll take us towards the coast and likely away from Enclave. There could be Pre-war settlements around there too and it would be easier to get a foothold on the Wasteland."

"Well let's go then," I said starting to walk but someone said something.

"Wait guys!" Christina piped up, and she was the quiet one of the group, "Doesn't our Pipboy's have the map making program? Why don't we activate them? It'll make it easier to navigate."

"Good idea," Jared said, "I mean the Pipboy automatically registers a large scale map of the region it's been in such as the Carolina Region of North and South Carolina. It gets larger masses, not the small detailed geological masses. But if it's in thirty meters, we'll pick it up. The Pipboy will send a small vibration if there's something that could be considered worth looking into like a prewar settlement, location, or something that it wasn't programmed to come across."

"Man whoever designed these things was a genius," Jordyn spoke up.

"Definitely," Christina agreed.

So we turned on our Pipboy Map Making software, which was amazing by the way. I activated my SRD and looked up the road. There was just a bunch of destroyed vehicles that dotted the roads. Some had run off the road some didn't. Under the blazing sun, we had finally come up to an exit that stated another highway that it would cross. Highway 701 is what we were about to cross. But the sun was going down and it would soon be night time. After our three hour long trek from the Cliffs to where we were now, I was a bit tired.

"You guys want to camp out here?" I asked, "I know it's in the open, but it's going to be dark soon."

"What about that church over there?" Christina asked holding her SRD to her side. She must've just used it because I didn't notice the building was a church.

"Yeah that's way better than sleeping in the open," I agreed and made a bit of a light joke out of it, "Fuck it we're going and there's nothing you can do about it Jordyn."

"But I don't wanna!" He messed with me back, "I'm not religious."

"Since when!" I demanded.

"Since I found out that being a Satanist was the wrong path," He replied shrugging, "That's when I stopped believing in Satan, and went to god." Out of everyone, Jordyn was the only one who went to church regularly down in the Vault because he was a Baptist, and he'd often make snide remarks about Satan when the subject arose. I would've loved to go but having three jobs took most of your life away, especially if half of it was being in that survival program.

"You'd still be religious," Jessica pointed out.

"Uhhhhhh," He uttered, "Well…..yeah."

"Shut up Jordyn," I commented, "You sound smarter when you're not talking." Everyone started snickering about that. So we walked on down off the short overpass and towards the Church further up the road.

When we got to it, I realized that it wasn't the only building around. It was one of three on a four way intersection. Diagonally from our side, there was a prewar house across the street, an old gas station on was across from the church and the house. The Church was known as Glendale Baptist Church. Several of the windows were broken out, some were just shards. The place was destroyed, benches toppled over, everything. There was a hole in the ceiling as well. Someone had obviously taken refuge in this thing before because there was an old place where someone had made a campfire in the center of the chapel and a hole was burnt through the ceiling.

John got a fire started as Jared and Matt closed the doors. "Let's explore this place," I said gazing around the interior of it, "This church is big and has two floors, plus there's a tower in this thing. It could be a good lookout point." They nodded. We looked around and got started. Matt and I climbed up a ladder to the bell tower. We looked around to see absolutely nothing but more wasteland. There was a prewar town further on down the road. That was our only landmark for now, as everything else was hidden behind the ruined and burnt trees. There was also the bridge we crossed and I knew there was an older car dealership on the other side.

"Hell of a spot huh?" I asked Matt.

"Yeah," Matt said, "I think I like view." He looked around for a second at all the Wasteland. It looked hellish but it also looked like a painting that someone made of what hell would look like. It didn't look all bad, mistakes that people made is what shaped this place. The Sun was going down, and it was time we got a bite to eat and sleep.

We joined the others in the Church and sat down around the fire that Zack had started and he had already started cooking along with Brooke.

As they finished cooking, and we were in the midst of our meal, Zack had brought up a very important question.

"So Nate?" He asked, "We're out here now. When do we kick some Enclave ass?"

"As soon as we're prepared to do so," I answered, "Twelve people with N99's and a few Grenade Launchers won't do shit against Power armor. Not to mention, Those Vertibirds they've got."

"Besides," Lauren helped, "There's no way their military strength stops there. They've probably got robots, and possible ground vehicles."

"Maybe," I said, "But we don't know the extent of their technology level. Remember what our parents taught us? Technology is a powerful asset, as well as numbers, and strategy."

"And that means….?" Brooke asked.

"We're doing some major recon before we try anything," I said, "We need to learn the Carolina Wastes before we try an offensive against the Enclave."

"Makes sense to me," Zack said shrugging.

"I think we should get some shut eye," I said, "Tomorrow we'll head into that town and see if there's anyone there who _isn't_ hostile."

"What if it's deserted?" Erika asked.

"Then we salvage what's deemed useful," I replied, "The only thing is, we're carrying what we can as it is. We'll just be slow moving targets with everything else we try to bring with us."

"We'll settle the rest of this stuff in the morning," I said yawning, "We need to get some shut eye. I'll take first watch."

"I've got second watch," Jared said.

"Third," Jordyn said.

"Okay then," I said, "Four hour shifts." Chances were that someone wouldn't wake up before daylight. The first hour I was awake, there wasn't anything going on. I made my way up to the bell tower, sat down, and watched the nighttime wasteland. My back was against a pillar. I listened for anything around. There was nothing out there. Not nearby and danger to me or my friends.

I heard someone coming up the ladder. It was Lauren. "Hello," I said nodding.

"Hi," She chirped back. She climbed up and looked around. "Nice view huh?"

"The best," I said looking at the silhouette or her backside. She turned and looked at me with a playful yet knowing look as if she read my mind.

"Well can I ask you something?" She asked walking back over to me. She got close, real close. She had moved my right leg away from my left.

"Anything." My voice kind of went rigid. It's amazing how I could fight an army of vault security with no problem, but nervous as hell when it came to one woman.

"Can I watch the view with you?" She asked voice more confident than my own. I gave a nod, but whether I did so or not would not stop her from sitting between my legs, back against my chest, and her head under my chin. I might have tensed slightly, unintentionally of course and I'm sure she could feel a little motion like that. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I responded.

"I don't believe you."

"Let's just say you're….."

"Ugly?" She asked.

"No!" I said a bit quickly, "Nothing like that! Exactly the opposite, not that..." I sighed, "Okay look you're….."

"Nate." She moved around to be facing me on her knees and hands holding onto my thighs. "You talk too much." Next thing I knew, her mouth was pressed against mine and she pretty much guided me down on my back as she pressed further.

"Lauren," I said between each kiss, "What're you…..?"

"Your confidence sucks," She replied and started unzip my jacket, "It's not even cold out here. You don't make sense you know that right?" The feeling's mutual.

"Okay…." I said still not following. _Okay,_ give me a break; I was slow when it came to women. I took off my jacket and that's when we started kissing once again. It didn't go any deeper, thank god. I couldn't decide if I wanted to or not. That would've been a bit much so soon. "Can tell you something?"

"Anything," She played and at the same time running her hand up my chest and down to my abdomen.

"I love you."

She gazed at me lying atop me and smiled. "I love you too."

….

The next morning, I awoke in a familiar position on the mat I shared with Lauren only this time she slept into me hands against me her head under my neck. It was barely daylight, the others sleeping, except for Jordyn who was not at his mat. I raised my head a little and noticed something. Neither was Jessica….?

I gently got up and looked around. Neither one of them were anywhere to be found. I cocked my N99 just in case. I walked up to the second floor and looked around. I was about to climb the latter when something fell from up there. A pair of…..women's panties. I lowered my head. So it was like that eh? Jordyn and Jessica? Okay then. I picked them up and threw them back up into the hole. I walked back towards the other end. That wasn't any of my business.

I gave everyone a few more hours, hopefully some of them were awake by now…..particularly those who were about twenty feet up in the air, and clothed. Anyways, it was already turning into a crazy ass world out here.

"Nate," I heard Lauren say softly from behind. I was sitting in a chair in one of the rooms gazing out the window towards the prewar settlement.

"Yes ma'am?" I answered.

"What are you looking at?" She asked coming up and leaning on me then kissing me on the cheek.

"That prewar settlement," I replied sighing, "I'm ready to get in there and see what's in there. I'm tempted to just scout it out for now, just to see if there's anything going on."

"I understand," She said, "But don't you think it would be safer just to wait until the others are up? Just in case there's danger up there?"

"The thing is," I said, "A group the size of ours is going to get noticed. If one of us could just see what's out there as one person then, it'll be easier to be sneaky about it."

"Come on," Lauren said smiling at me her head on my shoulder, "You know you mean _you _and not _one of us_."

"Well when you put it that way…." I started.

"At least take someone with you," I heard the subtle voice of John from behind us.

"Most notably you?" I countered rather jokingly.

"Of course," He said nodding.

…

The plan was set about an hour later. Only me and John would leave the Church while the others stayed. Jordyn and Zack had got the doors. They closed them behind us and we both walked towards the town.

"We should stay on 701," John spoke after we had gotten closer towards the prewar town.

"Or any street's that don't involve getting lost," I deadpanned, "Look for points of interests, landmarks, and anything we could mark on our maps. Any movement at all you notice, let me know."

"That's why I brought this," John said pulling out one of our SRD's the group had received.

"Me too," I said grinning, "Let's just put them to better use than Jordyn managed back in the Vault."

"I don't know," John said lightly, "That _was _a pretty awesome feature."

"Oh yeah," I said nodding, "Except the consequences like being beaten up by an angry woman."

"Agreed," He replied and looked through the SRD. I did the same and adjusting to binocular vision and zooming in. The town was larger than I expected. There were many streets, neighborhoods, and stores up there. I switched to X-ray vision scanning around the entire area. There wasn't any movement at all in there, I checked all around us and eventually I became about as bad as Jordyn was. The X-ray settings were powerful on these things. I saw them all back there and then the thing focused on….crap. _Lauren_. The thing was, I didn't realize I had turned around all the way and I know I'm not the first to be looking into Binoculars and forget that things appeared a lot closer than they actually were. Just, how the hell did I manage this? _Oh god quit looking! She'll kill you. _I snatched my eyes away from the binoculars. "Did you just…"

"On accident," I said going red, "Come on let's scout out this place."

"Dude if she finds out she's going to….."

"Just shut it John," I said, "Don't say a word about it, I was checking for movement all around us. I saw movement and I forgot what the church looked like from way out here okay?"

"Bullshit," He coughed.

"You're losing points."

"Okay okay," He said sighing, "I'll forget you did a cavity search on Lauren using an SRD." I punched him in the arm. "Okay jeez bro. But seriously, was she hot underneath all those clothes."

I didn't answer. I just started walking towards the town. _Yes._ "Just to let you know, Christina's going to kill you for talking about another girl like that."

"Uh," He said catching up to me rather quickly, "So um, Nate? We don't need to mention that to her do we?"

"I don't know," I said smugly, "As much as you seemed into the idea of another girl….."

"Okay I deserved that," He sighed, "You win." In reality Christina _was _his girlfriend and John didn't really talk about other women in that sense around her. It was only when he was with the rest of us guys which wasn't really surprising. You _did _have to act all big and bad when you were with your friends.

"I know." I mused. I noticed a street sign that read _Loris City Limits. _"So the town's called Loris huh?"

"Well it had to be named something," He said, "So why not name it after a monkey?" I snickered.

We immediately saw a large warehouse on the left of the road. It was a prewar construction supply store called _"Discount Building Supplies." _Beside it, closer into the city, was some kind of Chinese styled restaurant and across from both were a bunch of houses spotted out in a field. There was a gas station on the right closer into the town that was attached to a small tire store. We found that there was a road going into neighborhood across from the tire repair store. There was even a small dealership next to the gas station and further up the road was a fast food restaurant called _"Micky's_." Ironically a bar was next to it, there was a road that had a Commerce Center. There were several stores in plaza's spotted out on the left of the road and finally one that was just a general store and a hotel behind it. Beside it was a bank, while across from it was a grocery store and an electronics plaza. There were several electronics stores afterwards and even a vehicular parts store called _"Advanced Auto Parts." _ There were fast food restaurants and even another construction supply store called "Blanton's." Across from Blanton's was a Pizza place, and a bureau for insurance. There were more banks, restaurants, and gas stations afterwards. There was a Pharmacy store right after the gas station and a car dealership across from the pharmacy. There were roads going towards neighborhoods afterward with buildings lining up on them. There were several pawnshops, a grocery store, and liquor stores further down the road. We came up on an intersection that had a cluster of buildings on the right. It was Main Street.

"Should we?" I asked.

"Yeah," He replied, "But left or right?"

"Uhhh," I said conflicted but thought better of myself, "Let's head back and get the others. It'll be easier to salvage anything we can with all of us."

"I think that's a good idea," He replied as we turned around we heard the faint sounds of something coming towards us. A massive machine with wheels was making its way down the street from back the way we came. It was a green truck that was large with a flatbed in the back and had a white star on the hood. It was some sort of military truck.

John and I got out the road as it drove. Someone was driving it. When the truck stopped an older man got out.

"Well hello yall," He said grunting a bit. When he got out I saw that he had old blue jeans, a flannel shirt, and a cowboy hat. He was Caucasian, tanned skin, with misty blue eyes and white creamy hair. He looked like he was going bald under that hat of his.

"Hello," I answered back.

"Yer not here to cause trouble are ya?" He asked.

"No sir," I said.

"That's good," He replied, "I'm 'fraid there ain't no one here but me and you two. The name's Charlie. Yours?"

"Nathan," I replied.

"John."

"So what brings yall to Loris?"

"We're kind of on the road," John said, "Just traveling looking for a place to settle down." The older man raised an eyebrow. Did he not know how to word things properly?

"If you want to call it that," I commented, "And not there's anything wrong with it, but we're not gay. We've got about ten others in our group."

"Well then," He said sighing, "Why don't you come on back to my ranch? There's plenty of room fer all of ya." I didn't want to disappoint the old feller, plus we could probably get some information about the Wasteland from him. "Judgin' by how pale yall are, I'm guessing yall either spent all yer time in a sewer somewhere or in one of them Vaults that's been around before the War. Seeing how yall don't look like shit, I'm guessing a Vault."

"You'd guess right," I spoke, "That's a story for when we get to this ranch you're talking about. Can we pick up our friends though? They're in an old church just up the road before town at a motel and an old gas station."

"Oh ol' Glendale?" He said with a grunt, "Sure, I knew there wasn't somethin' right with those doors being closed up. Figure'd the wind blew them shut or something. Alright," He grunted getting into the truck. "Get on in the back. We'll head right up there." John and I walked over to the back and climbed on in. We sat at the back end on a few benches that were built in. It was the first time I had ever rode in a "vehicle" before. So it took some getting used to when your body was moving by the force of the trucks speed. He turned around and then drove the truck up the road back the way we came.

The ride was something I enjoyed though. Feeling the motion of the truck weaving in and out of cars and downed light poles. We even hit a speed bump that sent John and I bouncing a little. It was a feeling I like as I laughed it off. But I knew it probably would hurt like hell if one of us fell off. It only took maybe three minutes to get back to the church apposed to the hour it took getting to Main Street. When we pulled up I got out and landed on both feet as John did the same but on a knee.

"Awesome huh?" I said grinning.

"Amazing."

We walked around to the other end and walked towards the Church. The doors opened and almost everyone poured out with guns drawn.

"Oh it's you!" Jordyn said relieved, "What the hell is this thing?" He gestured to the truck.

"It's a Vehicle," I answered, "A prewar military grade truck."

"And it's running," The Charlie spoke up walking from around the driver's side.

"Alright everyone," I said walking towards the church, "This man's given hospitality for us to stay at his home for a while. Let's load all our stuff up into the truck."

"Hold hold it," Jordyn said quietly as I walked pass. He talked low enough where Charlie couldn't hear. "Are you sure we should be trusting this guy?"

"He seems alright," I said shrugging.

"I don't think we should just go trusting people out here like that," He responded.

"Look if he's not trustworthy by tonight," I spoke quietly, "We'll leave okay? Let's give him a chance." He looked at me then his eyes darted away for a second.

"Fine," He replied, "But don't forget what we're trying to do out here."

"I never forget," I replied, "Trust me." Everyone around was perplexed to see how this was going to end.

"You heard the man," Jordyn said, "Let's go."

So with that we gathered all our belongings and piled them in the back of the large truck then got on ourselves. I sat on the end, Lauren leaning against me as my arm wrapped around her. I looked out as we passed under the bridge we had came across trying to decide which was to proceed. As we passed under there was a loud vacuum sound from the speed and temporary echoes that came from the underside.

We turned down the next road on the right and then went down a dirt road. The burnt woods all around us hid an airstrip for some kind of airplane and as we turned into the dirt road there was a house that was surrounded by a perfectly fine wooden railing fence and a large house in it. I saw that there were automated ground turrets that were spread out along the outside of the fence line.

We pulled in alongside four more trucks similar to this one. He cut the engine and got out. "This is it," he said walking around, "Just leave your things in the truck until we get you all acquainted with the ranch, then we'll settle you all in."

"We?" Jordyn asked.

"My wife and I live here," He said, "It's been a long time since we last had company. Speakin' of which, where the hell did that old woman get to?" He looked around the property and had some of us snickering. "Hey Janice! Where ya at?"

"I'm inside," An old lady said, "I'm getting supper ready."

"Well you might as well cook more," Charlie yelled back, "I've brought company!"

Out of the white three story house came an older woman with graying hair. "Oh!" She said, "How nice. Don't be strangers, come on in." She gestured to us like we were family or something. We walked towards the porch like a bunch of lost kids, which she stood on. "Now what's all of your name's?" We looked at each other, probably trying to figure out if they were trustworthy. I spoke first.

"I'm Nathan," I said.

"Lauren."

"Jordyn."

"Jared."

"Jessica."

"Brooke."

"Erika."

"Matt."

"John."

"Christina."

"Kaitlyn."

"Zack."

"Oh," The old lady spoke, "That's a lot of name's to remember."

"That's a lot of people," Her husband deadpanned, "Anyways, don't let the old lady scare you, come on in." Janice chuckled a little bit.

We walked in to find that the house was surprisingly neat compared to the rest of the world. The houses walls and floors looked brand new, there were pictures hanging on the walls, and the plumbing looked like it was installed just now.

"This is…." Kaitlyn said.

"Brand new?" Janice asked, "No dear, it's about twelve years old. You see, the lumber yard in a city called Conway is still up and running. There's just not a lot of people near it."

"But I thought the bombs fell all over the world," Jared said.

"Well they did," Charlie asked, "But in the Carolina Wasteland only a few cities and places were hit. The targeted South Carolina cities were Charleston, North Myrtle Beach, Columbia, Rock Hill, and Spartanburg. North Carolina Cities were Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensville, High-point, Wilmington, and Cary. There were also places that were hit that weren't communities or anything like that. They were in just open country. But Conway wasn't hit, it was nicked. Loris got through unscathed but you know that the last rain killed everything. So now it's completely deserted other than all of us."

"Then why not move into the town?" I asked.

"Well there are creatures that like to go in there after night," Charlie said, "It would be crawling with Nightstalkers, Yao guai, or even Deathclaws."

"What are those?" Jessica asked.

"Just out of curiosity," Charlies spoke, "Did they teach yall anything in that vault about prewar wildlife?"

"A little," I responded.

"Okay then," Charlie said, "Nightstalker's have the body of a Coyote, with a head and a tail of a rattlesnake. Yao guai are large mutated bears, and deathclaws are vicious monsters. They have reddish brown skin, large claws, horns, and pure white eyes. They'll attack you on sight if they see you. They're about as tough as Power armor is. Wait do you know what that is?"

"Yes," I answered, "It's not any type of armor we would want to face anyways unless there's counter-able measures for it."

"Well you're in luck," The old man said, "The only Power Armored folk you'll find around is either the Enclave or the Brotherhood of Steel. The Enclave don't claim any territory this far East, thank the lord. They mostly operate in the Blue Ridge mountains and closer to Columbia other than the concentration camps around. There hasn't been any Brotherhood of Steel activity around the Carolina's in almost ten years now. They're all from the Capital Wasteland though, just scouts."

"So I take it that you're not particularly on good terms with the Enclave?" I asked.

"Hell no," Janice said instantly, "Those Bastards killed my son."

"They killed him?" I asked immediately concerned, "Ma'am, I believe we're going to have to have a seat somewhere. We've got a lot to talk about."

We sat down in the dining room which had a large table that easily fitted us all. "So the Enclave killed your son?" I asked.

"Yes," Charlie said, "We made the mistake of passing by a Concentration Camp near Florence. We were on horseback then. They chased us down shot him and killed him. Everyone out here that is not one of them are mutation. They don't care if you're not a ghoul or what, they'll kill you on sight."

"Sounds like us," I said, "We aren't exactly from a friendly vault. The Enclave were in control of it. We uh, were trained to be soldiers…."

"What." Charlie commented.

"….but we escaped thanks to our parents. They didn't want us to be with the Enclave for the simple purpose of what they do. You see _every _vault was eventually controlled by the Enclave. They were commissioned as a ruse to oversee their experiments in controlled groups. Ours was nothing more than a training ground for future Enclave soldiers. Had we gone through with it, we'd probably be enemies. But we didn't. They killed our friends, force us to live in tyranny, and even attempt to kill us for disobeying one measly order, which was simple, _obey _our overseer."

"So how did you end up here?" Janice asked.

"Our parents helped us," I said, "They had rigged the game from the start. They planned for us to escape because apparently our group was meant to be deployed after we were shipped from the Vault. But like I said we escaped through the back way and ended up on Highway 9 then found our way to Loris. We don't like the Enclave, and our goal is to stop them at all costs for ruining ours and everyone else's lives. They fight for monarchy, we fight for freedom."

"Sounds like you're trying to make a nation of your own," Charlie said, "Or an army."

"Or…" I thought about what he said and gazed at my friends, "or both. It would be just enough to bring some kind of peace in the Carolina's and possibly the entire U.S Wasteland, that way no one lives in fear of the Enclave again."

"Well I'd say join the Brotherhood or the New California Republic," Janice said, "But they're both a long ways off from the Carolina Wasteland. So it looks like you all have to start from scratch."

"Who are the New California Republic?" Jessica asked, "And you mentioned earlier something about a Brotherhood?"

"It's an uprising Nation that spreads mostly on the West coast to Nevada. They're a militaristic nation that is attempting to uphold ideals of Prewar America, but they're arrogant and they annex anything that in their influence. The Brotherhood of Steel is a Technology-religious organization similar to the Enclave but with different motives. They believe to collect technology that'll preserve life in the future and make it better. But so far, the Brotherhood has split in many different factions. We've seen and heard of them all. The West Coast and those in Nevada don't give a rat's ass about the people who aren't with them unless it involves the Technology. The Mid-Western BOS is located near Chicago are considered AWOL in the Core regions eyes. The Capital Wasteland chapter is currently the strongest chapter now. The reason being is because they've got more advanced tech than the other chapters and a larger scale of robots employed. Air units, some kind of orbital asset that destroys towns in one blow, and a platoon of twenty foot tall almost indestructible robots, yeah they're no one to piss off."

"Well damn," John said, "What kind of territory do they cover?"

"The entire capital Wasteland for one," He said, "A place called the Pitt where they have workers that construct some of their armor, weapons, and ammo. There's this place called Point Lookout South of Capitol Wasteland. They've got detachments in there that train their members. Speaking of new places, They've got a division that was looking into simulations that some Prewar general commissioned to protect valuable military artifacts. I heard the Brotherhood of Steel got a hold of those as well."

"So how did the BOS gain all of this?" I asked.

"The Enclave and the former Brotherhood Outcasts," Charlie said, "The war for the Capital Wasteland was between all of these organizations. The two Brotherhood Factions had split apart having different ideals than from each other. Now apparently since the BOS has all the technology in that Chapter, they've made up. The final finish for the Capital Wasteland's war was the battle of some air force base where the Enclave had stationed their Headquarters. It was a massive battle but eventually the BOS won with the help of the one called the Lone Wanderer. Eventually the BOS gained all the technology that the Enclave left behind thinking they were all wiped out. But they weren't. They also came down here around the same time as they first emerged from that Raven Rock up there."

"And it's been thirty nine years?" I asked.

"Just about." Charlie said, "But this time the Enclave are prepared for the Brotherhood. I don't know how much has changed in that interval of time but I'm pretty sure they haven't gotten bigger and have a lot of assets now."

"Looks like we've got our work cut out for us then," I said looking at my friends. "That just makes me want to go for it more."

"Go for what?" Janice asked.

"Every single one of us has lost something to the Enclave," I said standing up, "They've either killed our family, friends, or have taken them away. They force their people in the military, they hate any type of mutation, and they'll kill them if they can. It's official, these guys are assholes. Assholes who need to be dealt with. I know the NCR and the Brotherhood of Steel have their differences, but they've got the right idea. They want what's best for human kind in general. Since neither occupy the Carolina's, why not stop them on our own in the same manner."

"Wait wait wait," Jordyn said, "Are you saying start an organization and a nation at the same time?"

I thought about it. Then he pretty much just summed up what I was thinking. "Basically."

"You're insane," Jordyn deadpanned.

"Didn't say I wasn't," I replied nonchalantly, "Besides, making a statement, and fighting them with only twelve people won't do shit. We'd be asking to get shot."

"He does…..have a point," Jessica said elbowing her boyfriend in the side.

"I know he does," Jordyn grumbled, "but he could've just skipped the speech….the asshole." Yeah…..he and I sort of called each other names like that.

"I'm feeling a little patriotic these days," I mused at him, "So Jackass you in?"

He sighed bowing his head. "Let's do it brother," He said, "What about all of you?" They didn't answer. "Aw come on, we can't let him be a dumbass on his own. He's got to have backup." There were some snickering over that.

"Who said he needed to be one on his own," Lauren said, "He's enough for the entire group." I smirked. She pushed on my shoulder.

"I feel so loved," I said shaking my head.

"So you're starting a Nation," Charlie said nodding, "I'm sure it's a nation I'll be proud to be a part of. But I've only got one question. Or a few, if you answer it right, we might as well get you used to how things go out here in the wastes."

"Shoot," I said.

"How do you plan to start this nation?" He asked, "And get this militia or army going? And I know there's a lot of people in the Wasteland."

I didn't know an answer to that, but I had ideas. "First," I said before I answer your question, "What are its people like?"

"Well most of them are good folk," Charlie said, "But the rest are bandits, and tribal Raiders. They're the assholes who do what they please. There's no law in the wasteland. The only reason Janice and I have lived here for so long is because those turrets are a big threat to anything once they're directed at a target."

"Raiders?" Jared asked.

"Vicious people who operate in gangs," Janice spoke up, "Drugs, theft, murder…..rape. Sometimes all at the same time." There were a few gasps from some of the girls. That painted a _pretty _picture…..not. I thought of Lauren falling into that situation. It sickened me.

"Any education among any of them, the wastelanders I mean?" I asked trying to push that picture out of my head, "Something along those lines?"

"There's a few who are smart," Charlie said, "But the rest only know how to shoot and live off the land. People out here don't exactly have the education of a Vault Dweller."

"We might have to change that," I said, "I think if there was order out here or education for the youth, Raiders and Tribal's might not be they way they are."

"They'd just be smart Raiders," Janice pointed out.

"Not if they were molded into decent and civilized people," I said, "in a nation under law, justice, and freedom. That is as long as the law's obeyed."

"You see," Charlie spoke up, "That's what the Enclave promised, but almost all of its members are military. And I'm speaking the god honest truth here, but Women have no say so in it." That may have sparked an intense hatred among the girls around. "There are no women in their military anymore and it was highly uncommon to see them in there in the earlier years. But nonetheless, they're only around in the Enclave for what they call _Breeding pure humans_."

I could see the expressions of some of our female companions go red in fury. I closed my eyes. That was fucked up, using women for only that purpose.

"Slaves do most of the other work in the Concentration camps," He continued, "Such as working on statues, constructing war machines, and buildings. The slaves are kept under watch all the time because the Enclave know they have a rebellious streak in some of them. They may be uneducated on most things but if it's a gun or something they can learn quickly, they're dangerous to the Enclave."

"So if we manage to get them out of there," I said, "They'd be potential recruits? Or followers in our beliefs?"

"Probably," Charlie said, "But you can't just expect them to come with you like that. You've got to show them that you're worth the trouble of being fugitives in the Enclave's eyes. You've got to show them you mean business when it comes to creating a Nation, not just a fools dream."

"I plan on it," I responded, "And as far as this sexism goes. That's just another reason to kick the Enclave's ass." That may have been the smartest thing to say at that time. At least the girls weren't going to be pissed with me.

He nodded. "Okay then," He said, "How are you going to go about this?"

"As in now?" I said, "I've got it all in my head, but it'll take a few minutes to process how to progress in it."

"Look's like you've been giving this some thought," Janice said, "Charlie, I know you're all into this conversation about creating a nation, but why don't you show them around the Ranch? If they're going to do all of this, it'd be good to start working like a Wastelander in the Farm life, it'll be a good lesson for them." _Oh hell._

"Might as well start somewhere," I said shrugging, "Guys?" There were a bunch of words in agreement, although slightly reluctant.

"Well let's go then," Charlie finalized getting up. We walked out the same way we came in and found that the Ranch was something we didn't expect. We were even given a warning. "I have to warn you all, things have changed since the Prewar. Everything you learned in that Vault about animals probably doesn't count what it's like now. Some in the Carolina Wastes haven't changed much. Let's start with showing you what I deal with every day."

I had to admit, the way he said it was a bit…..creepy. We came up on a pasture that had several different kinds of animals in it. They all looked related somehow though. No matter how they were related one of the species looked almost sickening as we were new to this world. The species was obviously some kind of cattle. It had two heads, reddish skin, and a large utter. The other cattle species was at least normal. It was bulky though, black, and had slightly longer horns.

"These are some of the cattle that are all around the Carolina Wasteland," Charlie said, "The Brahmin, and the Angus. The Brahmin are widespread, probably all around the world, but I haven't seen any Angus anywhere except in the Carolina and Florida Wastes."

"It doesn't take a genius to figure out humans use them for something," I said, "Meat?"

"Oh yeah," He said nodding, "Their hair is woven into string and rope, they're good for hauling shit around, milk, you name it. Now these critters are called boar's." the creatures he was talking about looked like large Wild hogs, only they had four tusks, and thick fur. "They're used for meat and that's it. We've got a few domesticated animals here, but that's not all there is to do on the Ranch." We followed him towards a large field that had rows full of plants. "We grow our own food here as well."

I heard Erika and Zack talking. "What does this have to do with this nation idea Nate's got?" Zack asked quietly.

"We're new out here," Erika responded, "It's best we learn what we can. Even…..if it is _this _kind of work."

"There isn't anything wrong with a little dirt," I muttered. Lauren nodded. I figured I'd annoyed and piss my friends off at the same time at this point. "Okay so before we see any more of the Ranch, tell me what to do."

"As in?"

"What do you need done?"

He smirked. "Crank the tiller."

…..

So that was it. The tiller was a small machine that moved so freaking slow, it wasn't funny. He asked me to plow an acre of land he had marked off with posts. I had to plow it four times. Two in one way and two in the other direction. I was out there for about two hours max. I ended up working without my shirt on due to the heat, but I was fine with it. I think I may have either inspired some of my friends, or just made them feel extremely guilty over the fact that I got to work without a second thought. Jordyn, John, Matt, Zack, and Jared started to plow more acres, though they never reached the one acre mark like mine.

It was kind of funny. I could do this all day, even for someone who was raised in a Vault. I wondered where the girls and old Charlie took off to. I looked around the Ranch and saw that they were in a barn feeding some kind of animals. It was sheep that didn't look mutated at all. They were large with pure white wool. They looked about the size of an Angus but they had the shape and looks of a pre-war domesticated sheep.

"We shave their wool once every month to make new clothes," I heard Charlie say, "Their wool is also good with armor."

"How's that" I heard Lauren ask as she was stroking a lamb.

"It's as tough as wire when you use it as threading," Charlie said, "Janice can sew some nice clothing out of it." He caught a glimpse of me. "Ah Nathan, done already?"

"Well that acre you asked me to do," I said wiping the sweat from my eye, "What else needs to be done? I'm already bored."

"There's always something to do around here," He said scratching his chin, "But if you want, you can help us out." He grabbed a hold of a large rope.

"Sure," I said shrugging.

"Okay we fed them to get them in here," He said walking over and closing the door, "Now it's time to round them up. Now ladies don't be expecting things to get gentle around here."

He tackled one of them and wrestled it to the ground. _An old man_ did this. "Alright tie its legs," he told me working to keep the Sheep's body pinned. I did so, hogtying the sheep. I heard some gasps as the large sheep started making crying sounds like one of their prewar species would make.

"Don't hurt it," Brooke said in a bit of a concern for the thing.

"It doesn't hurt them," Charlie said getting up, "They just don't like getting a haircut. Alright Nate drag her this way." I did as I was told as the animal attempted to break free of its binds. I dragged it to a cement place in the barn. Charlie grabbed a few buckets and some electric hair clippers. "Alright ladies. How about yall give this one a nice shave? The settings on the trimmer are already set. Any wool you shave off put it in buckets." He looked at me. "Nate let's get another one."

So we got to it. It didn't take long before we had four ready for shaving. It didn't take long before we had all of them done. By that time, the other guys had finished with plowing their acres, so we ended up finishing up the work we had to. The day was going into night time. After a shower and dinner, which consisted of some kind of meat and vegetables, we were offered different rooms of the house. There were seven rooms available in the house. Angela ended up taking one on her own.

When Lauren and I got settled in, we looked around our new room. It was simple with a two person's bed, two dressers, a cabinet, and there was a bathroom. A window overlooked the backyard where most of the animals and fields were. We changed into sleep wear, for me it was a simple pair of pre-war jogging pants. For her it was a night gown she wore.

"What do you think it's going to be like?" She asked me, "Out here. In the wastes?" I could sense the concern that was radiating off her. She stood at the window looking out there.

"To be honest," I said coming up behind her and wrapping my arms around her waist, "I think we haven't even got a taste of it yet. We're only learning what everyone else out here deals with every day."

"I know," She said holding onto my arms, "But it's not going to get any easier is it?"

"No," I answered, "Why don't we get some sleep? We've probably got another long day tomorrow."

"Fine," She said as I let her go. She turned around and her lips met mine. When we parted she said something that almost made me laugh. "Did you know your kiss is seductive?"

I chuckled. "That's ironic," I said smiling as she walked towards the bed, "Usually it's the other way around." I got in the bed with her and she immediately snuggled up to me.

"But you seem to forget….." She said amused, "I'm a woman. It's in my nature." She gave me another kiss and leaned into my chest. We fell asleep like that, without a care in the world for once. Just being with her was all I needed. But she brought up an excellent point earlier. Things were going to be a lot harder out here. The only question was, what do we do now?


	7. Scavengers

**Part Two: The Outside**

**Chapter 6: Scavengers**

The next morning all of us were up bright and early ready to get to work once more. I actually didn't mind working for Charlie and Janice, for the simple reason that I might find myself in a similar situation where I needed the skills. I was the first up as usual. When I awoke the smell of Laurens hair was right there. As she had folded into me not moving all night apparently, it was quite the challenge to get out of bed without waking her. I had to slowly slip my left arm out from under her upper torso side, and cover her back up with the covers.

Janice was already up and had breakfast cooking. I walked down into the living room where Charlie was sitting there looking seamlessly bored. "You up already?" He asked.

"I'm usually the first," I answered, "Among our group."

"Figures," Charlie replied, "So tell me something. Something's off about you, I can feel it. It would normally be a struggle for someone to do all that stuff for the first time."

"As in…?" I asked.

"Being able to tackle a fully grown Eastern Sheep is something else," He said, "And having the stamina to do so even after working with that tiller all day. I must say I'm impressed."

"I wouldn't say it's me," I said, "It was the Enclave. They experimented on some of us, probably all of us. I remember flashes, but not much. They gave me greater strength, some weird situation where I can speed my reaction time up and predict movements of others, and agility that is similar to a prewar cheetah's speed."

"Well what about the others?" Charlie asked, "Are they special in any way?"

"I don't know," I replied, "But if they are, they haven't shown what they can do." He remained silent which I thought of something else. "I take it this isn't the only thing you wanted to talk about."

"You're right on the money there," He replied, "Now listen, I know you're planning to start up this nation. It's a pretty broad and touchy concept I know. I was thinking that you hold off on that for a few days."

"Why is that?"

"May I ask how you plan to do this," He asked, "You explained a little to me earlier but not in true context."

"Like I said," I stated, "There's so much that we don't know about the Wasteland."

"That's why I'm going to ask you to stay on the ranch for a while," Charlie replied, "Or at least in the Loris area. There's a lot about the Carolina Wasteland you can learn from me and ol' Janice."

"I believe it," I replied truthfully.

….

The morning had started off with a breakfast prepared by Janice. It was enough to feed us all. When Breakfast was done and over with, Charlie brought up the point he made with me earlier. We were to pretty much work with the vehicles that we had ridden to the ranch. He spent the entire day teaching us how to put one together, repair it, and the next day we learned to drive them. That was a fun experience because none of us ever dreamed we'd be driving pre war trucks. _Driving_.

We drove around the Ranch mostly, getting our bearings on the trucks. After play time was over, we started to work in the fields once more. But this time we planted several rows of seeds such as corn, beans, tomatoes, potatoes, and okra. That was day three on the ranch. The next thing was something I never thought I'd do. We actually were shown more of the animals that were on the ranch. We stood in front of a pasture that had some kind of hooved animals in it.

"These are called horses," Charlie said, "They're good for riding and pulling things like buggies. They ain't worth shit in eatin'. They taste worst than literal shit."

"We'll take your word for it," Matt commented voicing all our opinions. My thoughts were, was he being serious, or joking. Did he consume human waste at one time? I stopped thinking about it, the moment those thoughts crossed my mind.

We learned how to saddle the horses, and eventually learned how to control them. Horses weren't really as mutated. "There are a few mutations though," Charlie ensured us, "I know only of three. We call one a Shadow horse, because it is pitch black and at night, it is extremely fast compared to day time. They also blend in with anything that is similar to their coats. The other is called a fire horse. It is called that because where its mane and tail is, are engulfed in bright flames. It also breathes fire. Real flames. Then there's a combination of both. When you see this horse, it's got blue flames on its mane with a black coat."

"How dangerous are they?" I asked out of curiosity.

"They're not dangerous unless you provoke them," Charlie replied, "They're actually pretty docile. You've just got to train them like any other horse. That's also what I'm going to be teaching you today. To ride and train your own horse. I've got plenty of them here. They're just a waste of space being in this place by their self. Pick one of them out for yourself."

The horse I chose was one that had a shiny brown coat and dark mane. It looked strong and probably had a lot of stamina. Charlie quickly went over what was what out here. They were all Quarter Horses and all were younger than two years old. He taught us the colors of the coats that were on the horses as well as the terms of their age and genders I had a Bay horse that was a Filly. A Filly was a female horse that was under the age of four years old. I slipped a halter on her and got a lead line from Charlie.

First we had to feed them, water them, then make sure all the excess hair that was shed was off them. Next we fitted them with the saddles and had their hooves trimmed. It took about half the day for all of this to take place. But breaking in a horse, was a whole other ball game. Getting these horses to do what we wanted them to do was a bit hard. We worked with them all day. There was progress but not much. The next day was the same way. It's all we did. The day after that, went better. We actually got them to listen to the commands via reins and subtle taps in the sides. It seemed that our hard work had paid off in the end though as I could command the Filly any way I wanted to. I had finally come up with a name for her. It was Sapphire.

By dinner that night, I couldn't believe that it has been a full week out of the Vault. Yet, we hadn't really done anything productive outside of the Ranch, which for now was fine. What I loved about the Ranch was that we were in a relatively safe environment for now while still learning a little bit about surviving out here. Nevertheless, I was thankful every night for Charlie's hospitality and being able to lay down in bed with Lauren.

The next day was a bit better. After a daily morning workout I put myself through and breakfast with everyone, it was time to once again, see parts of the Ranch that we hadn't seen before. I found it ironic that this place was that big and we hadn't been to it all. I had heard dogs barking all the time we had been here, but I never knew where they were. Turns out, there were five pairs of dogs being bred in a barn.

"We breed them here and take them down to Myrtle City," Charlie said.

"Myrtle City?" Lauren asked.

"It's a settlement that popped up in the prewar city of North Myrtle Beach," Charlie replied, "The town in general is lawless. It's nothing but a trading place for travelers and locals."

"Anything good come from there?" Jared asked.

"Well a lot of it came from either the Capitol Wasteland, or the Mojave Wasteland," He replied, "that are just passing through. They trade, then move on. Most of the time there are some pretty valuable stuff in those caravans." Hearing the word _Caravan_ gave me an idea for this nation we were going to make.

"Okay so what kind of dogs do you breed?" Angela asked.

"Every breed of dog here is bred for a purpose," Charlie said, "We breed Labradors for retrieving things and hunting. They're dead useful in scavenging for ammo, meds, things like that. There's the German Shephard, the most common dog out here. It used to be used in prewar police work as in chasing down criminals. Sometimes they were used in military operations against enemy nations. Our next breed is called a Border Collie. I use them in herding cattle sometimes, and they're good with other animals. The other pairs were another set of Labradors and German Shephard's. "This group though isn't going to be sold though."

"Why's that?" Jordyn asked.

"I figured one of you would ask that," He replied, "In this nation you're building, you're going to need all the assets you can get. These dogs included." I was speechless on that. This man, he was giving so much for us. Why? What would he gain? It didn't make sense to me. But he was right; we needed any help we could get. But more than anything, we needed numbers, as in more people. There was a lot on the to-do list, but we had to take things a step at a time. For now, we had to abide by the teachings of Charlie and Janice which was so far, at least somewhat educational. If it wasn't that, it was downright interesting.

"Thank you," I said nodding, "So what's on the agenda for today?"

"Nothing much," Charlie said, "I think it's time you learn how most of us make our profit out here." There was a puzzled expression on all of our faces.

"There's more to gaining profit than by trading?" Erika asked.

"I'm going to take you on a scavenging trip into Loris," He replied, "It's a good way to gather supplies for this nation you're going up against. Think of it like that." Again with gathering supplies for this nation and army we were making, but we still had no supporters. We had to change that.

"Well," I said sighing, "Let's get started. You seem to know a little about the prewar Loris area, so what do you think? Should we take one or two trucks?"

"I'd say three," Charlie said, "Just in case. You never know what you can find that's useful."

"Okay then," I said nodding, "Okay everyone, let's get armed then we'll move out. Charlie do you mind being a driver?"

"I was planning on it."

"Okay cool," I said nodding, "Jessica, Angela do you mind driving the other two?"

"Sure," Angela said nodding.

"No problem," Jessica said.

"Alright," I said nodding, "Jared, Brook, and Erika. You three will stay on the trucks as spotters with the SRD's. I'll take one as well. Everyone else is on scavenging duty. It leaves six of us to look around. Everyone game?"

They agreed. So each of us had an N99, a Grenade launcher, a baton, and extra ammo. Charlie however had a 12 gauge shotgun. I bet people out in the wastes now would think seeing us driving down the road in a convoy was the closest they've ever been to seeing prewar civilization. Truth be told, it probably was.

I rode shotgun with Charlie as ours was leading the convoy. "I've been meaning to ask you," I spoke when we were pulling out of the ranch, "Where did you get these trucks from?"

"Well kid," He said sighing, "First off, these are military grade trucks. I've been working with them for about three years. I found a National Guard Depot in the Prewar Myrtle Beach city. Now there's not a lot of decent folk there but there are several settlements of tribal's and Enclave escapees."

"Tribal's?" I questioned.

"They're groups that adopt primitive life styles," Charlie replied, "Such as making weapons out of junk, not using prewar technology for cooking, or stuff like that. But apart from that, that depot has all kinds of military grade equipment in it. The doors are just barred shut like everything else in the Carolina Wasteland."

"Just for the hell of it," I said rubbing my chin, "We may have to check this place out. How'd you get the trucks?"

"They were in a garage across the street of the complex," He replied as we got onto Highway 701, "The garage was easy to get in. The complex, not so much. The depot's not major either, so most don't know about it."

"Interesting," I said nodding, "Any other places like that in the Carolina's?"

"I'm sure there are," He said nodding, "And I'm sure you'll find out sooner or later. For now, where do you want to start scavenging?"

"We might as well make a day out of it," I replied pointing at the Discount building supply warehouse, "Let's start there I guess?"

"I'll let you know now," He said, "The only thing you'll find in there is a bunch of materials for construction like plywood, fencing, and cement. Truth be told, I use it as a storage unit for repairs on the Ranch."

"Okay then," I said nodding a bit, "Let's skip that then. Let's start at the Fast food restaurant up there. By the way I've been meaning to ask how you keep your home looking like prewar homes I use to see in the pictures in the Vault."

"That's a question for another time," Charlie said gesturing the end of that conversation with a point, "But the Fast food restaurant is probably a good place. I haven't been in half the buildings in Loris. I never needed to."

"Fair enough," I replied. As we pulled up on the fast food restaurant _Micky's_, I noticed the bar next to it. That could be a hotspot for something, as far as alcoholic beverages go. We stopped right in front of the parking lot still on the street. "Let's see what we can find. I'll have the others look at the bar and the gas station we passed."

"Alright," Charlie said nodding. I hopped out of the truck and walked towards the other two behind this one.

"What gives?" Zack asked leaning over the railing of the back of the truck.

"You and I will check out the restaurant," I said up to him. I've got the others going somewhere else."

"Alright sure," He replied.

Lauren rolled the window down. "What is it babe?" She asked.

"I want your team to check out the gas station back there okay?" I said, "We'll cover more ground."

"Alrighty then," She said nodding then rolling the window up. The truck started to pull off the road and turn around to head back towards that gas station.

I went to the last truck which Jordyn was in. "Hey bro check out that bar up ahead," I said to him.

"On it boss," He replied nodding. The truck pulled off towards the bar ahead of us.

"Alright Jared see anything around here?" I called. He was in the back of our truck. He pulled out his SRD and scanned the building then all the way around.

"It's clear," He said.

"Very well," I replied, "Come on Zack." He agreed and we walked into Micky's by opening a glass door that had somehow survived two hundred plus years. The lobby was large with overturned chairs and tables. The lights were broken, busted, and everything similar. The first thing other than the lobby I noticed was that behind the service counter, was a blue beam that was like a force field. It only covered part of the kitchen in the back but you could quickly tell the difference. Inside the blue field was nice, slick, shiny metal cooking equipment but on the outside of the blue field was rusted, bent, and destroyed equipment.

Zack and I looked at each other. "Let's ask Charlie," Zack said voicing our shared thoughts. When Charlie came around to see what was going on, his first expression was at ease.

"This is just a Prewar preservation field," He said.

"A preservation field?" Zack commented.

"It's a type of technology developed only in the Carolina Wasteland before the war," Charlie replied, "I've never seen it outside the Carolina's with the exception of the Commonwealth. They have light means of that technology."

"Interesting," I commented, "What do these fields do exactly?"

"Well you see how the inside of the field," He started, "everything's brand new looking? And everything else looks like a piece of shit outside of it?"

"Yeah," Zack replied.

"The field is controlled by a generator that preserves prewar objects," He said, "If it's inside the field, it doesn't age. It doesn't work on anything living though, as in humans, animals, or the like."

"That's….pretty handy," I said then thinking of something, "Wait….in theory could this technology preserve food?"

He made an inquisitive expression. "In theory," He deadpanned. I think I just found out how to support a lot of people in one go round.

"Charlie," I said nodding, "If what you say is true. Then this technology could aid our cause, even by a little bit."

"I agree," He replied, "Just what did you have in mind?" I didn't answer, I just went to open up a metal door but it was locked thanks to a master lock.

"Well," I said looking around the room, "If there's food in here, a lot of it at that, it might be enough to feed anyone who joins us. The cooking equipment can be salvaged and we could serve food with them."

"Good idea," Charlie said, "But how're we going to get through that master lock?"

"We need something that can cut through the metal on it," Zack said rubbing his chin, "But there might be another way. Let me take a look at it." He inspected it. "Okay the keyhole size and overall structure of the lock indicates that it has three tumblers. Simple to picklock, but let's see if we can't find a key or something around here first." We looked around everywhere for some sort of key. I looked in an office that was off to the side. I found that there was a safe, several documents, computer equipment, and things that was used in the restaurant. Hanging up on a rack underneath a shelf was a key ring full of keys.

"I found something Zack," I said as he looked at me. I tossed the keys at him who caught them. He made his way back to the lock and started testing out the keys. While he was doing that, I asked Charlie about the safe. "You reckon anything valuable's in there?"

"Probably Prewar money," Charlie said inspecting the safe, "If you ever find any, take it. It's valuable as hell."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Charlie said, "A one dollar bill is worth five caps, fives are worth twenty five, tens are worth one hundred, twenty's are worth two hundred, fifty's are worth five hundred, and hundreds are worth a thousand."

"And I'm guessing caps are currency?"

"Pretty much," Charlie said. "We'll see if we can't get into this thing when we see what's in those freezers. Trust me, it's good to have an investment plan for those traders."

"Agreed," I seconded.

"Hey guys," Zack called, "I've got it open." We walked around back towards the metal door to find that Zack had it opened and looking inside.

"Nate we've got all kinds of food up in here," Zack said looking around. He switched on a light switch and inside was shelves upon shelves of food. I walked inside to see that the shelves were all made of metal, like the metal box they were in. There was another door, that had boxes and boxes full of meats and frozen foods. There were buns on racks, and the freezer was about as hot as ice ever was.

There was even a basement to this thing. And in that basement was a weird generator that had glowing neon blue ridges on it. "This is it then," I said marveling at the piece of technology.

Zack checked the computer. "Hey boss this thing says there is enough food stocked in these freezers for eighty three years of sales on busy days," He said surprised, "That's good right?"

"Hells yeah," I replied astounded, "We can't do anything with it right now. Let's leave all this here for now."

"What if someone tries to take it?" Zack voiced his concerns.

"It has been here for over two hundred years," I replied, "I don't think a few more days or weeks will matter much."

"True," He said agreeing with me.

"Lock it all up," I said, "We'll take the keys with us. Besides there's a safe in the office and I want to see what's inside it."

"That's cool," He replied and started to lock the freezer back up. After that we decided it was time to check the safe. The contents inside weren't what I was expecting. I was expecting a few dollars, but this was close to it. There were only three hundred caps worth. It was better than nothing though, I had to admit that.

"So is Loris generally unpopulated or are there other resident's here?" I asked Charlie as we walked out towards the truck.

"Well…..," He started, "It depends on the type of residents you're referring to. Apart from their type, this is a popular travel route."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Let's just say you aren't the first organic by-products of the Enclave okay?" Charlie said sounding nervous, "At least you _look_ human. My friends that live in the old elementary school don't. Most humans are scared of them because of the way they look so they tend to shy away from them."

"It can't be that bad," I replied.

"They're called Super Mutants," Charlie said, "They're larger than any human, have pale green skin, with large muscles and many are known for their brute personality. Some are friendly, others hate humans and attack anything that isn't them. The few in Loris are friendly enough, they're intelligent too."

"Sounds like an interesting lot," I commented.

"I don't know if your opinion of them will change if you meet them, or not," Charlie said, "But please…..try to not to insult them based on their looks."

"Wouldn't dream of it," I replied, "Come on, let's see what the others have found."

We walked out of the restaurant with a set of keys and prewar money back towards the truck. I looked up and down the street to see that the others were doing whatever they could to aid us in our scavenging attempt.

Lauren's team pulled up from the gas station. "We got a lot of bottles of water, and some kind of drink called Nuka-Cola," Lauren informed me, "We also found these here." She held out a lot of prewar money, about five hundred caps worth, _at least_.

"Excellent," I said nodding, "Anything else?"

"That's about it Nate," She said then gave me a kiss on the cheek, "We found what we deemed was useful."

"Wouldn't expect anything better," I replied.

"Hey Boss we've got a lot of drinks in this bar over here," Jordyn said from the parking lot of the Bar, "Probably good for trading or bartering."

"I know I'm stating the obvious here as far as drinks go," I said, "What is there in the bar?"

"Beer, Wine, Alcohol, Whiskey, Scotch, and some Vodka," Jordyn replied.

"If you ever find yourselves going towards Myrtle City," Charlie said, "There's a saloon up there that buys that kind of stuff."

"Yeah," I said as I looked towards Main Street, "I was thinking Loris could be an outpost for now or we could start up a settlement here."

"An excellent idea," Charlie said, "But getting people to settle here will be a difficult task. You've got to provide a good reason for them to settle down here."

"We'll discuss that later then," I said nonchalantly, "I've just got ideas rolling off the top of my head. Leave the drinks for now, and let's keep scavenging alright? We've got an entire town to go through. Everyone mount up!"

We got in our respective trucks and started down the road once more. We came up on the Grocery store, the general store, that hotel behind the general store and the bank. "Just out of curiosity do those banks have any money in them still?" I asked Charlie.

"Probably a lot," He said, "But cracking the security system will be a hell of a venture."

"Jared and I are pretty good with security systems," I replied, "Hell if things go right, we can probably use some banks as our own personal supply stash."

"You've got quite the imagination boy," He said shaking his head. Angela's team went towards the general goods store. We pulled across the street at the parking lot of the Grocery store.

"Alright Jared," I said getting out of the truck, "Lay it on us."

He was looking through the SRD. "Nothing bro," He said, "You're all good. There's some minor heat signatures though, their smaller than a dog and almost flat."

"Probably Radroaches," Charlie said, "You're going to find that some buildings are inhabited by something other than humans. Might as well get used to it. Those SRD's come in handy for letting you know ahead of time."

"I agree," I replied, "Zack you ready?"

"Always," He said hopping off the back of the truck. We walked inside ready to see what we could find. There were several of the blue preservation fields in here. These fields were obviously activated and never turned off. I found that it was mostly in the produce section and meats section that they were in.

"Check for any of the cash registers for Pre-war money," I said, "That will be worth some caps in the long run." He ended up finding about five hundred caps worth as I walked around the massive prewar grocery store. I found that there was a storage area in the back as well as large freezers like the one at Micky's. It too had preservation technology and had not been tampered with. The only reason I knew that it hadn't been tampered with was because of a lot of boxes and crates in front of the door. I looked inside. It had all kinds of meats and produce inside. To make sure no one found it after our group did, I moved the boxes and crates back. It would make a good stockpile. I started to head back towards the front.

"Find anything useful?" Zack asked as he saw me come from one of the isles.

"Another preservation freezer," I said as we walked towards the entrance, "It's stocked full of food."

"Great," He said holstering his N99, "So we've got enough food to make our army fat, just not the army itself."

"Or the weapons and technology to combat the Enclave," I amended, "Don't worry, we'll figure it out. Right now, scavenging everything we can in Loris will prove invaluable in our goal."

"I see," He said, "So were you sure about it when you said Loris could be an outpost or the headquarters of our new nation?"

"It would be a good start," I said, "We would have to set up defenses in the town though, like those ground based turrets that's surrounding the Ranch. Figure out how to barricade the areas we can, and on top of that, try and negotiate with the local Super Mutants."

"If they're by-products of the Enclave then they know how we feel," Zack said, "They'll be sympathetic to our cause."

"They _should _be," I amended, "It doesn't mean they'll join us."

"Find anything useful?" Jared asked from the truck.

"Another food stockpile," I said nodding, "And some prewar money. Any word from the others? Charlie get the truck on the road please."

"No," Jared commented.

"Will do bud," Charlie said and cranked the engine. Zack and I walked towards general store across the road as he passed us.

"Hey boss," Zack said as he peered into a store attached to the Grocery store building, "I'm going to check in here for something."

"If there's trouble," I said, "Warn us."

"Yes sir," He replied nodding. I walked up to the trucks out on the highway passing a rusty Corvega. "Find anything useful?" I asked Matt as he came out of the General Store.

"Several prewar items," He said, "Mostly baskets, old electronics, some clothing, and a bunch of still working equipment."

"Like?"

"Coolers," Matt said, "The lights still work, and the stock room was full of clothing and prewar box fans."

"I see," I said, "The clothes might do well in trade, but let's see about these coolers you were talking about."

"Alright," He said shrugging and I walked in alongside him. We checked out these coolers that he was talking about. It was basically drink coolers that had racks on for customers pick one up and buy it at the register.

"They'll come in handy for all the drinks we've stocked up on," I said going through the store, "We'll probably need clothes baskets, hampers, and the works." I looked at some trash cans and some other stuff. "Take those trashcans, that group of foldable tables, and are those CV radio's?"

"Yeah."

"Those too."

"Okay."

"I'm checking out the hotel really quick," I said walking out the general store and towards the hotel that towered behind it. Lauren was in charge of looking through it. Upon arrival, I found out that the hotel was stocked up like a…..well, a hotel. I walked in to see Lauren looking through something on a computer.

"Hey," She said, "I've just been looking through some stuff. I know it isn't much but this hotel is still in pretty good shape. Well….as good as a Prewar building could get. There isn't any cave-ins or anything. The furniture is in 'okay' condition and the plumbing has somehow managed to stay intact."

"So what can we expect out of this place in our new home?" I asked.

"Barracks or rentable apartments," Lauren said shrugging, "I think we should leave everything in this hotel, It looks docile enough.

"Very well," I said, "Round up your team, We're moving up."

"Will do," Lauren replied getting up. The teams moved up again, Zack taking up the rear catching up.

"I found this boss," He said as we gathered around the trucks. He tossed something that was heavy at me.

"Gold?" I asked inspecting it.

"Good lord where did you get that?" Charlie asked eyes wide as bricks.

"Found it in that jewelry store attached to the Grocery store," Zack replied, "How valuable is it?"

"Out here gold is worth twenty thousand caps for a bar like that," Charlie replied, "Extremely valuable. This could fund buying a year's worth of food for all of us, but also be very useful in the caravans for buying weaponry or supplies."

"Which would help convince others of our cause," I replied.

"That too," Charlie said.

"Enough chitchat," I said, "We've got the rest of Loris to look through, "Team one will take the Bank, team two and three will check out the plaza up ahead where the Auto parts store and electronics store are. Clear?"

"Roger that," Matt said nodding. The two trucks rolled up to the plaza leaving the last to pull up in the parking lot of the Bank.

"You're positive the systems are still online?" I asked Charlie looking at the door from the truck's side.

"Most likely," He replied scratching his nose, "Be careful going in there."

"Understood," I replied, "Zack?"

"Roger that," Zack said hopping out the back.

"Weapons drawn," I said as we went up closer, "Remember what we were taught." He gave a nod. We were taught "breaching" methods used in the Prewar tactics of the United States Military. I got on the left side of the door while Zack got on the right. "Hold." This is where our tactics would change up a little. I pulled out an SRD and scanned around the interior of the building. "I've got two ground based turrets, one on your side and one on mine. Both of them are Mark II's. Looks like Charlie's right about Prewar financial security measures."

"See something in there worth anything?" Zack asked.

"There's a vault in the rear," I replied, "The SRD could only get through half of that thick metal so we're blind for now. Jared signal the others for a disregard of fire." He nodded then called via whistle.

"Alright," Zack said checking his N99, "Ready?"

"Three, two, go." I counted down while opening the door slightly. Zack yanked it out of my hand as I rushed in to the left. I fired a round at the targeting sensor destroying it instantly. Zack did the same. "Good job. Check the office's first. I'll see about this Vault." It felt weird discussing something about a vault even if it wasn't one we were use to.

"Will do Boss." I looked at the Vault door thoroughly. I looked around for a keypad, a system that would open the door, anything. I couldn't find anything. "Hey I've got something here Nate. Some old computer."

I walked into the manager's office. There was a panel on the wall. It was a control panel that opened the Vault. This is where hacking skills came in. I looked through the code and eventually found the password. It showed all files, bank reports, saving accounts, everything.

"I think we hit the jackpot," Zack said reading all the numbers.

"I believe you are right…." I uttered.

_Carolina Banks_

_Store number: 20345004002_

_Manager: Rick Wilson_

_Vault-_

_Depository: $239,059_

_Active saving slots: 8_

_Federal Depository: 10 24k Gold Bars_

_Security Measures-_

_Security turrets, Mark II-_

_ Active: 0, Malfunction_

_Automatic infiltration denial Vault System_

_Manager controls-_

_-Open Main Vault_

_-Disengage Security Turrets_

_-Programs_

I opened the vault through the programming, though not before going through the programs function and changing the password. I wanted to make sure this computer wasn't lying about the funds. Zack and I checked the Vault, one of us standing in the door way in case the Vault decided to close by itself. Inside, the money was well preserved. There were gold bars that were shinier and clean compared to the dusty bar of gold that was found in the jewelry store.

"Alright let's lock it up," I said, "This bank is now ours."

"Hell yeah," Zack said agreeing. We walked away as the Bank's Vault closed. When we went to check on the rest of the group, we found that they had a decent haul. Team two had found a lot more CV radio's, some still intact screens that were used as TV's but could still serve a purpose. There were washing machines refrigerators, stove's, everything.

"I think we should keep the larger appliances here for now," I said, "The CV radio's, radio's for broadcasting, these handheld transceivers, power tools, fans, automatic door systems, and these irrigation appliances. Load those up."

"What about all this stuff?" Matt asked. He pointed out all the prewar lawn and mowing equipment, the fitness equipment, the office products, music products, and everything else that was in here that was useable.

"We'll come back for it," I replied, "Right now, we're just scouting for now."

With that I checked up on Lauren's team. They had gathered _a lot_ of tools of different types. They ranged from wrenches, hammers, nails, power tools, air compressors, and parts for automobiles. The shelves of the store were _packed_.

The next area we moved up to was the next bank and a larger construction warehouse like the one that was currently acting as storage. I had teams two and three exploring it. My team checked out the bank once again. This time, the security systems were already neutralized as far as turrets went. But the problem we ran into was a vault system that was ten times tougher than the other banks. But I eventually cracked it. The funds were less, but there were considerably more Gold Bars as it was a Federal Bank. We locked it up good and tight before we moved on with the other teams.

The Construction supply place had a lot of useful items but we couldn't carry it all so we left it. The gas station next to it had nothing useful inside. The only interesting thing we found was a few prewar dollar bills and some old Nuka cola. The Pharmacy was next on the agenda, as well as a pawn shop and another fast food restaurant, all three having a team sweeping through.

The pawnshop was locked down about as tight as my protectiveness over Lauren. The windows were intact, barred, and the front door was blocked by debris from another building right next to it. The windows were musty and you couldn't see anything through them. I pulled out an SRD and checked the inside. On the screen you could see exactly what was inside. There were civilian styled weaponry, electronics, ammo, knives, jewelry, and a lot of tools. "We hit a stockpile of weapons," I said, "Check it out."

He looked at the screen. "Nice," He said smirking, "So we've got the money, the weapons, the food, the supplies, but not the personnel."

"This isn't nearly enough weapons," I deadpanned, "Come on, let's find a way in."

"You mean one that doesn't involve going through iron bars right?"

"Yeah."

We walked around the building looking for a way in. There was a back door but it was locked. A lock picking session later and it was open. After Charlie pulled the truck around, we walked inside. Inside were a few pistols, particularly N99's, AR-15's, shotguns, and several bolt action rifles. After loading all of that, we managed to stock up on several items that would be good in trade, according to Charlie. There was money, Nuka-Cola, the jewelry, a lot of things Charlie would classify as junk, and whatever else they could find.

After cleaning out the Pawn shop, my group met up with the others. They confirmed that there wasn't anything of value in the fast food restaurant, but the Pharmacy was raided of a lot of medical supplies. We then continued up the road checking the next grocery store and surrounding stores. There was some food, but not much compared to the other places they've been to. By the time they got to Mainstreet, they decided that it was time to head back home. That is until one of the spotters saw something coming right down it.

"Everyone," Angela spoke pointing down the long line of connected stores on Main street, "Someone's coming! I think it's a caravan!" I walked around and looked through the SRD. What I saw was something strange. There were seven armed people with body armor on and two Brahmin. One of the Brahmin was loaded down with supplies, and the other was hooked up with chains. People were in those chains like prisoners. There were about twenty of them ranging from kids to adults.

"Charlie what do you make of that?" I asked giving him my SRD.

He looked through it for a split second. "Those are bad people," He spoke, "They're slavers. The people in chains are slaves. What probably happened was that the slavers killed off a settlement except a few to sell to other Slavers. These people are going to need help."

"Look's like it's their lucky day," Jordyn said, "Right Nate?"

"Exactly," I spoke, "Pull those trucks out of sight. Jared, Angela, and Matt, there's an alley about halfway. If I can't negotiate their surrender, we'll ambush them okay? You'll hit the two rear Slavers. Zack, John, Christina, and Brook, I want you on the roofs on each side. Lauren, Erika Jordyn, Jessica and I will be right here. Charlie, I think you should stay out of this fight. Janice will never forgive us if something happened to you. The signal is an impressed whistle okay?" He nodded. Everyone armed themselves with N99's and we were confident that we only needed them instead of the other weapons. Jessica and Jordyn were on one side of the street keeping behind the buildings while Erika and Lauren were on the other side. They wouldn't be noticed until it was too late. The Slavers came in about five minutes after we spotted them. The trap was set. All they had to do was spring it.

They stopped at the sight of me. The Slaves looked fearful for me while the Slavers looked like they just scored another piece of merchandise. "Now what do we have here boys?" The lead one spoke. He had some kind of leather armor on and an assault rifle, "Another Wastlander who will soon become a slave? Hmm?"

"Actually," I spoke, "If you want to make a profit, why don't you let me buy all those slaves there?"

This peaked the Slaver's interest. "So you're a buyer huh?" I could see with my peripheral vision that the rooftop people of our group were laying down picking a mark. Jared managed to sneak on the other side of the street from the rear. If all went right, things would be done without any friendly casualties.

"You could say that," I spoke, "How much for all of them?"

"Ten thousand Caps," The slaver spoke.

I gave the signal with a whistle. Then, there were simultaneous gunshots heard from behind the leader. The other slavers dropped dead. He turned to look which I pulled out my N99. He went to raise his gun when he came back to look at me but I pulled the trigger. The headshot was an instant kill. Seven bodies littered the ground now. "Ladies and gentlemen," I spoke, "That was textbook." I put my gun away and searched the man's body for anything useful. He had the key for the shackles on the prisoners. By this time my group had already came from their positions and looted the enemy's weapons and valuables.

"Who are you people?" One of the slaves asked.

"My name is Nathan," I said resting my new assault rifle on my shoulder, "We're here to free you. You're slaves right? Did you all come from the same place?"

"Yes," the slave spoke, "They killed all of our friends in Aynor then enslaved us."

"Before I free you," I spoke, "What would you say to staying with us? We need able bodied people."

"We thought Loris didn't have an occupation," One of the slaves spoke up.

"We're a group starting our own community and eventually turn the Carolina Wasteland into a strong new Nation, but sadly, we don't have supporters yet. We're just getting started."

"You're not with the Enclave are you!?" The slave claimed heavily alarmed.

"No," I spoke with venom, "In no way are we with them. In fact, we want them gone just as much as anyone else probably does." The Slaves all relaxed. "But I won't lie. When we were apart of them, none of us knew about it. The Enclave have control over most of the Vaults. We were part of an experiment. They did things to us to make us super soldiers, but we rebelled. Our parents helped us escape. Now we're out here in the Wasteland. We're going to use our skills to create an army to combat them, to bring law to the Carolina Wasteland."

"I don't know about all of that," The slave said, "But there's nothing left for us in Aynor. All of our people were killed and the slavers know where Aynor is now."

"But we'll help you any way we can," The slave spoke, "If you're building an army, we'll help."

"Good," I replied, "We're going to need all the help we can get. The Enclave need to pay. They are using any wastelander they find in concentration camps, most of the time using them to build their bases, or just to exterminate them. My brother was murdered by one of those bastards."

"Well okay then," I said unshackling him, "Charlie? You reckon Janice will mind the extra company."

"No," Charlie spoke, "Not for one night. But tomorrow we'll have to get them a better place to stay."

"We'll start making Loris a settlement then," I said, "Where do you suggest we start?"

"Personally," Charlie spoke, "I'd clear out the hospital and make that the base of operations. It's the largest building in Loris and can set up defensive positions easier."

"Alright," I said, "Tomorrow we'll look into it. For now, rest is what we need."


	8. The Hospital

**Part Two: The Outside**

**Chapter 7: The Hospital**

The next day, we started towards the Hospital which we took Main Street. The hospital had five floors and a basement. It was the original group and eleven of the freed slaves who were the first "soldiers" of the new nation that was going to be built. The children barely older than thirteen were back at the farm with Charlie, Janice, and the mothers of the children. Charlie was busy teaching the children some of the things he taught us, minus driving.

We did a quick scan with the SRD's at the entrance and found nothing, there were too many walls to actually get a good view inside. We found no real way to get in, due to every entrance being locked down by a heavy drop door. "Unless one of us can jump really high," Benjamin who was a former slave spoke, "We aren't getting in." There was a gaping hole in part of the building which was on the right side of the hospital overlooking the street. Unfortunately, it was on the third floor.

"Never say never," I spoke, "We'll get in."

"How?" Benjamin asked. I didn't answer, I just looked at the hole in the wall. I saw something that was going to make breaking in very dangerous. There was a waste corral with stone walls right under a broken out window.

"Like this," I spoke, "Jared and Matt follow my lead. Everyone else stay put and keep a lookout." I put my assault rifle away then ran at the corral wall. I scaled it to climb on top of it. I then ran towards the wall keeping my balance and ran up it to grab the window seal. I climbed in and kept low. The hospital room was pretty much left to age in the years it was deserted. There was aged medical equipment all over the place. Soon after, Jared and Matt came through the window.

"Well that was fun," Matt commented as he looked down out the window.

"Yeah," I said, "Let's see if we can't get those doors open huh? At least the front entrance, that way we can get the others inside."

"I don't see anything in the hall," Jared spoke who was peering through the cracked door, "But just to make sure…" He turned on the SRD and scanned. "There are some heat signatures, animal like. Radiation signatures too."

"Alright," I said walking towards the door, "Let's get moving then. Be ready to open short controlled bursts."

"Roger that," Jared said putting his SRD away and opening the door. We stepped out into the hallway noticing that it was in terms, filthy like every other building we had cowered in our sweeps. But this building was the biggest one in Loris. Walking down the hall we made sure to open every door so that nothing would be hiding. Something was in here, that was for sure, but what? We were in the Cardiology division of the hospital. There was no doubt that the hospital was a gold mine for medical supplies. All we had to do was get everyone in, build up our defenses around the hospital, then we were set. After that, we could move on to expanding the borders to the town. The elevator wasn't in working condition so we took the stairs. The signs on the walls were leading us. Radroaches were not that dangerous if you knew how to handle them. A stomp to the head and they were done. Eventually, we wound up in the front lobby. The Hospital was definitely something of a maze. It took them a good five minutes to get there too.

"This security drop door is air-locked," Jared said, "There's only one way of getting through it. We're going to have to find the terminal that opens it. Our best bet is the security room."

"We're in luck," Matt spoke, "There it is." He was pointing at an office on the other side of the lobby that very clearly had a sign over that confirmed what it was. The room was locked, but it didn't take long to get the door open. There were three terminals, two of them active, the other not working at all. Jared got to work on the terminals. Matt stood guard at security doors while I had a look around the lobby some more, particularly at the hospital directory. We hadn't even covered a fraction of the hospital yet, but it was all there. Eventually I heard the sound of heavy metal scraping against something else. It was deafening but not nearly as loud as a Vault's cog being opened or closed. I looked over to see the security door rising up. On the other side, the others were waiting to come in. When they came in they couldn't help but look around. After all, this was our new home and for right now, base of operations. They were talking about it like we needed to get things to work.

"Alright everyone be careful," I spoke, "We haven't swept the entire building yet and there are still heat and radiation signatures in the building. Be careful and don't go anywhere alone until this place is secure. Got it?" There was a mumble of agreement.

So we walked through the hospital opening every cabinet, every locker, every drawer, anything that would have something valuable in it. Everything was chocked full of medical supplies, Stimpaks, Med-X, Rad-X, Rad-away, Mentats, Buffout, and anti-venom. All of it could be extensively used if needed. The canteen's equipment was well preserved however the food supply was all out of date by two hundred years.

"I'll tell you what the problem is," Jared spoke up as we had all met in the canteen, "This place doesn't have any power to it. We start up the generator, we have power and everything will work…in theory. The only reason the security door works is because it's on a separate system."

"Alright then," I said, "Matt, Jessica, and Jordyn how about go see what you can do. The Generator's probably in the basement." They did as they were told. Everything we had gathered was sprawled onto the Canteen tables. They were all organized and there was so much that we wouldn't have to worry about medical treatment for a long time. "Everyone else, let's start setting up a perimeter. This is a strong building but protecting the town is what I want to do next."

According to Charlie, the town already had a large concrete perimeter fence around the West and South sides as well as parts on the East and Northern sides. All they had to do was fill in the gaps of the walls with whatever we could. I drew out a quick map of the town, mostly the roads and buildings we had been to and looted which was mostly on Highway 701. It was mostly where we should set up guard posts. For right now though, the only thing that was going to be guarded, was the hospital. Only one entrance was available to anyone to try an access (not counting how we got in originally), and there was always someone going to be on watch. The hospital had its own stone fencing which would help with defenses for the hospital. To begin with, we were going to add an elevated area near the only way into the parking lot. The Emergency parking lot entrance would be blocked off as it was pretty much a hole in the defenses. I also wanted a gate built on the parking lot entrance so that we could keep out intruders. We would proceed with more plans after those were finished. A bunch of us went out and inspected what we would use as barricades.

"In Aynor we used old cars, tires, scrap metal, and junk as barricades," Benjamin spoke, "And those old automobiles are all explosive, so taking the engines out of them is always a good thing as it'll create a miniature nuclear explosion. Now line the entire street up with them and what do you get?"

"A big ass chain of explosions?" Zack guessed.

"Exactly," Benjamin replied, "All we have to do is dispose of the engines outside the town then the cars would be perfect for building up a wall. The only thing is, you're going to need something that can help you stack them up. If it was me, I'd use one of the old forklifts in the warehouses nearby, if there's one in operational condition. Since we don't have any of that fancy power armor the Enclave uses, that's our only option."

I looked around the parking lot at all the vehicles. Some of them were destroyed (probably already exploded), some of them weren't. "Looks like we don't have that luxury," I replied frowning deep in though.

"Hey Chief," I turned to one of the other freed slaves, "You mind if we go scavenging in the town? Who knows we might find something useful in there."

"Deal," I replied, "But two groups only and no less than three to a group got it?" There was a slight silence.

"Hey chief?" Benjamin asked as if something had been bugging him for a while, "I might be stepping out of line but uh, why are you doing this? How do we know your plans will succeed?"

I didn't answer at first. I just let the questions sink in. But eventually, I turned to see all the freed slaves staring at me. "My friends and I," I spoke, "We lived down in a Vault occupied by Enclave supporters. Starting my generation, the scientists and soldiers that were assigned to the vault had to train their children as soldiers and scientists. In a way, our parents protected us from the Enclave by teaching us more than we were supposed to know. Basic military tactics, how to defend ourselves, and survival. The Enclave apparently only wanted us to have the smarts and the physical conditions to wear Power armor. They used some kind of chemical to enhance our mental and physical capabilities. We were going to be the next generation of the Enclave that would revolutionize whatever they were planning. I don't know if I'm the only one who has almost perfect reflexes to a hostile environment or not. But we were going to be used by the Enclave. Eventually, the Enclave came to retrieve our parents as they needed more people in the field, but that's just a guess on my part. We weren't supposed to leave, so we escaped using knowledge and tactics our parents taught us. The Enclave found us out so they sent in a small squad of soldiers to capture us. Fortunately they failed, but they hounded us throughout the cavern until our parents blew up our escape route behind us. Despite their wishes for us to go North or West, we stayed. The West is mostly occupied by a new nation called the NCR who are at war with Caesar's Legion and are in a barely stable truce with the Brotherhood of Steel. North in the Capital Wasteland is a chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel that is famous due to their control over the entire area. Obviously one of them were good enough right? But no, I'm ready to fight for security. It seems that the Carolina Wasteland is lawless, untamed, unexplored. I heard a little bit about the Brotherhood of Steel from my father. They're supposedly mankind's best hope for preserving humanity and technology. The NCR just wants to bring back America's government. Then you have the Enclave, another organization who claim to be humanity's last hope. But apparently humanity only spans to those within their organization and non-radiated people. They're just out here to try and kill anyone who isn't with them."

"That's a lot to take in," Benjamin spoke, "But tell me something kid. How are you going to build a Nation from scratch?"

"I look at it like this," I spoke, "Down in that vault, we learned several prewar subjects such as history, particularly prewar United States Military history. We learned everything we could about how America's military worked, tactics, battle strategy, and eventually what kind of weaponry they were armed with. On top of that, we learned politics, standard American history, and things that would prepare us for already existing forces such as the NCR or the Brotherhood of Steel. In addition, we learned math, reading and writing, a little bit in science and medicine, and basic survival skills. But to me personally, I think the NCR and the BoS both has their faults. The NCR wants to rule with an iron fist and tax their citizens. They are also willing to force people to accept their rule and will wage war with anyone who doesn't accept their terms. The Brotherhood of Steel, the western chapters at least, prefer to gather technology and not share it with outsiders. I know it seems like a fools dream, but adopting both beliefs on a more acceptable level seems like the best way to ensure that the Carolina Wasteland is the perfect place to build another nation. My goal is simple. Build a strong Nation. Eradicate the Enclave supporters."

"You say it like it's going to be easy," Benjamin spoke.

"I had this conversation already with Charlie," I replied, "He believes in this Nation I want. He's given us the basic means to do so. He's allowing us to use his resources to help establish a foothold in Loris. It'll take more than a few days to do this, I know, but I'm shooting for a five year preparation for this Nation. Loris is just the beginning."

"You are a ambitious man aren't you?" Benjamin asked jokingly.

"You could say that," I spoke, "I may not have been born out here—"

"We'll follow you unquestioningly," Benjamin interrupted cutting me off, "You seem like you're serious and have the tactical knowledge to do something like this. You saved us from becoming slaves and I thank you for that. I think it's only fitting that we help you in your goal."

"Thank you," I said, "that's all I ask."

"Nate," Lauren said coming from the hospital, "I've got the scavenging parties ready."

"Thank you," I echoed, "Benjamin and I will look for something that'll help us get these cars stacked up as a barricade for the walls. How're the others doing?"

"Matt, Jessica, and Jordyn are still down in the basement working on the hospital's electrical generators," Lauren replied, "Zack, John and the other girls are preparing for another scavenging session. Angela however is looking into something a little more…laid back."

"Like what?" I asked.

"You'll have to talk to her about that," Lauren replied, "Anyways, what do you want me to do? Go scavenging?"

"If you don't mind," I answered, "I'll join you all soon. I need to make sure things are getting done. 'Kay? Oh and take this." I gave her one of the maps of Loris I had drawn out. "It's not perfect but I want you all to check out the Main Street buildings, and the street between that other grocery store and the rear of the buildings okay? Oh and have someone check out further on down. There's not many buildings that way, but tell them to stay inside the city limits. We don't want to get on the wrong side of the Super Mutants."

She gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Alright darling," She replied then looked at the waiting people, "Alright Scavenging teams let's get moving." Three empty trucks were loaded and full of people ready to head a quarter mile to main street one street over.

I took the time to tell the remaining people to do things we were going to need them to do. I had one of the freed slaves stand watch with a pair of binoculars on the roof of the hospital and armed with a hunting rifle. Another would stand guard at the gate armed with an assault rifle and one last freed slave would stand guard at the hospital entrance. The rest who were not scavenging found something else to do, mostly cleaning up the halls of the hospital or had already started to dismantle engines in the prewar cars in the parking lot. Benjamin, who I found out that he was Aynor's previous group leader, stayed with me the entire time. I found that Angela was sitting in the hospital's courtyard with a lot of notebooks.

"Hey Angie," I said, "What are you doing?"

"I'm writing," She replied smirking, "I've been thinking about it for a while, but what good's doing everything if we don't keep how we got to this point documented? I think It's important that we keep track of everything because what if someone in a couple hundred years wants to know how this nation got started? If they didn't have any answers then the nation wouldn't be stable would it? People would start to question us."

"I think they already do," I replied, "But you have a point Angela. Very well, is this what you want?"

"Of course!" Angela replied.

"Then you are hereby named the chief Archivist for History and cataloging everything we have okay?"

"Thanks Nate!" She said giddily, "So I'm going to start when we were kids okay? Like one big biography. Then I'm going to incorporate when we left and from there on."

"You do that," I said trying to hide my amusement of her excited composure. Benjamin who was standing at the courtyard door I came from nodded. I could tell he was somewhat taken aback by Angela's wishes.

"It's a little strange," Ben said as we walked towards the Canteen which was across the hallway and through another door, "But she does indeed have a point. So what's next chief?"

"I think we need to go find anything that'll help us move those prewar vehicles," I replied and looked at the medical equipment. "Meet me at the gate." I turned to go back to Angela. "Hey Angie, do you mind cataloging all the medical equipment here?"

"Of course!" Angela spoke, "I'll get right on that." Immediately, she grabbed a notebook and a pen, then took off to the Canteen.

I returned towards the hospital entrance to discover Jared working on the door systems. "Having fun?" I asked as he was on a ladder replacing a bunch of rusted bolts.

"Oh hey!" He said finishing up the bolt, "Come here and look at this." He jumped off the ladder and showed me the directory. I was thinking if we can find any, we should put a spotlight on the roof of the hospital. That way we can point it down at the gate or the parking lot at night."

"Interesting idea," I replied, "If we can find one. Benjamin and I are heading outside the gates to try and find something to help us get the cars piled up."

"For what?" Jared asked having completely missed the conversation.

"We're working on the outer defenses," I replied, "That way we can post a guard outside just to keep watch instead of waiting for someone to try and get in."

"Makes sense," Jared replied nodding, "Hey, if you find something interesting, how about tell me okay? Anything that can be used and tinkered with always makes Jared happy."

I laughed. "I'll see what I can do," I finalized before heading back out and leaving Jared to his tinkering. Benjamin and another freed slave were waiting at the gate. I could see several fissure motors being put in the last truck by some of the freed slaves on my way.

"You ready sir?" Benjamin asked.

"Yeah," I spoke, "We'll just walk."

"Okay," Benjamin said, "Tom here saw the warehouse yesterday when we were still in shackles. He's going to lead us there. Shouldn't be too hard to find though because it's on the adjacent street from Main Street."

"Yeah," Tom spoke up, "In fact if we walk straight down this street here—" he gestured to the one that we used often when leaving the hospital, "—then we should come right up on it and we'll be able to spot it on this side of the railroad track."

"Well let's get moving," I finished to which the two nodded and proceeded alongside me. There were more office buildings around the hospital down this street and further up closer to the railroad track were two story homes. Eventually we came out right near a grain silo on our right overlooking a small field that could've been for a town fair or something in the prewar. Just ahead of us on the other side of the railroad track was a hardware store with another silo behind it. There was a parking lot between the store and a large warehouse. On the other side of the warehouse was a backstreet that was similar to an alleyway with a long line of stores on the other side of the street. The line of stores were connected to main street. It was a simple place. I looked back on the other side of the railroad to see another bank, a drugstore, and three other empty buildings. There was one pink building that was something similar to a trinkets shop. I could see a gas station that doubled as a mechanic's shop. There were a lot more stores down the Western part of Main Street but we would scavenge in those later. There were several entrances to the warehouse, all of them being locked from the inside with the exception of one and that being the office.

"You two know how to pick a lock?" I asked.

"No," Benjamin said shaking his head while Tom simply shook his own.

"Time to learn gentlemen," I said opening up a little case, "I've got eighty bobby pins in this thing. Get to practicing. We're going to be doing this a lot."

Benjamin looked at Tom then shrugged taking a bobby pin and getting started. I took three and left the rest with Benjamin and Tom. "I'm going to check out this hardware store," I said walking towards the hardware store, "Come get me when you unlock the door."

"Yes sir," Tom replied. I sighed, walking into the semi-ruined hardware store called Graham Brothers. The first thing I saw was that there was a lot of old prewar animal food in here, particularly right at the door. Beyond that were several large canisters of crop seeds at a service table with scales above the table. To the left was a lot of tack for horses and to the right around the bags of feed were several types of medicine. Walking through it all, I realized that this wasn't a hardware store, it was a farmer's store. I vaguely wondered if Charlie knew about this place. There were all kinds of gardening tools, fencing, animal supplies, traps, cages, collectable knives, flags, and indeed several construction tools.

I couldn't believe how much stuff was left over in Loris for over two hundred years. Either this place use to be a big old back wood town or people who came through just didn't care to scavenge through it. I found a goldmine, which I have to admit is amazingly lucky. I looked out in the side yard where there was something else useful. There were several gates stacked under an awning. There were four of them that were heavy metal as if one story warehouse doors and could be reinforced. There were also pasture gates which would probably be put to use as well. I heard something from on the other side of the fence that sounded like a hiss and a growl mixed. I pulled out my N99 as it was right where my left hand was at the moment. That definitely was not a friendly. It didn't even sound human. I kept listening quietly as I crept towards the fence. After a moment or two I realized that whatever it had been was no longer there. I still kept my guard up.

"Hey Boss?" I heard the familiar voice Tom from behind. Instinct told me to tighten my grip on my gun, "We got the door open."

I breathed. "Alright," I said putting my gun away.

"You okay?"

"Yeah," I said brushing it off and walking towards him and taking my case of bobby pins back, "Thought I heard something but it was nothing." We walked back through the building then out into the warehouse office. The office had nothing in it but office supplies, which at the moment wasn't useful to us. As soon as I walked inside I heard something crank. Benjamin was already on one of two forklifts.

"I think they both work Chief," Benjamin said over the noise and tossing me a key, "It opens that padlock over there on the main door."

I nodded and unlocked the door sliding the massive door open. "Why don't you two take the Forklifts and put them to work back at the Hospital? I'll head on over to the scavenging teams."

"You'll be alright alone?"

"Of course," I replied nodding, "Don't worry about me. I'm just going to have a look around that's all."

"Well alright," Benjamin spoke, "Come on Tom."

"Right behind ya," He replied getting on the other Forklift. They drove out of the warehouse and towards the hospital. I looked around in the Warehouse to find a lot more of the stock from the store next door. There was even something that wasn't in the store that I found interesting. A lot of sandbags all stacked up in the corner of the warehouse. I made sure to lock up the warehouse before moving on to find the Scavenging teams.

I passed several of the stores on my way and eventually came around to walk on Main Street. One of the freed slaves quickly pointed his gun at me not realizing who I was at first. "Sorry sir," He spoke.

"It's alright," I replied fairly, "Anything here?"

"No sir just a bunch of clothing stores, diners, and a publishing store," The man replied, "My team is checking out this Drugstore here then we're going back to base."

"Actually," I spoke, "Before you do that, how about check Main Street on the other side of the rail road tracks."

"I'll give them the word," The man said.

"Thank you," I replied nodding before walking back the way I came but going down the opposite side of the street to the Backstreet. There weren't many buildings on the backstreet as there were rear entrances to the main street ones as well. There were a few restaurants and the Mayor's office on this street all being connected into a corner-like plaza.

"Hey Boss," I heard the sound of John's voice coming from the second story window of the Mayor's office.

"Hey bud anything good in there?"

"Nothing much," John spoke, "Just a lot of historical and political documents."

"Save those," I said, "Having knowledge on the history of this town may not be a must, but I knowledge is knowledge none the less."

"How about we just put them in the vault at the bank then?" John asked.

"Maybe later," I replied, "Just keep them where they're at. But when you guys get done, head to the other side of the Railroad track and take a look at those building's huh?"

"Will do boss," John replied.

I nodded and made my way to the other side of the intersection on Main Street where Lauren and her team were. They were further on down the street already scavenging through five buildings down. I met up with them, and Lauren was coming out of the bank nearby with several bags of prewar money. "We've got a lot more money Nate," She said as soon as she saw me as she gave the bas of money to Brooke, "Oh and hey." She took off her backpack to reveal several gold bars like in the few that were found in the bank on 701. "These things are kind of heavy."

"Let me help you with those," I said taking the backpack off her hands, "more funding I guess."

"Yep," Lauren replied smiling. I put the backpack down and casually stared at her as she stared back. I casually broke our gaze then just as quickly took her in my embrace earning a squeak from her before she giggled. Sharing a kiss in the middle of the empty town was probably the most invigorating thing that could happen. As much as I wanted to keep going, I realized that we had things to do, like finding better equipment, fortifying the hospital, and stop anything that wants to threaten us.

"Let's take a rain check darlin'," I said quietly.

"It's always going to be like this isn't it?"

"Hopefully not," I replied sighing, "How about this? One day out of the week, we take a break from our duties? Just relax a little huh?" We had already been out in the Wasteland for a week and we had been doing nothing but preparing for a long shot.

"I'd like that," Angela replied. I kissed her again.

"Benjamin, Tom, and I found a way to barricade the rear wall of the hospital parking lot," I said, "They're probably doing it right now."

"Anything else good from wherever you got them?"

"A lot of sandbags," I replied casually, "Perfectly good fencing, some supplies, and some heavy duty gates."

"Nice," She commented.

I looked further up the road coming to the realization of something. Charlie had told us about something two days ago. "Save any prewar books you can when you get to the Library," I spoke, "I'm heading up the road for a few moments." 

"Where're you going?" She asked.

"Just to the edge of town," I replied casually, "It'll only take a few minutes, I won't be long."

"Okay," Lauren said unsurely, "But be careful would you?"

"I will," I said giving her another kiss and walking off only to pause, "hey when you get done with this street, how about check the street on the other side would you?" I was talking about the street on our left.

"Okay," She replied.

I continued down the street walking towards whatever was beyond it. There were several homes and streets that lead to a neighborhood. There was one point where I passed a church and a very tall prewar watch tower that was apparently used by the military or something. Curiosity got the better of me. Who wouldn't want to climb something extremely tall? So I climbed the stairs. I found out really quick that this tower was taller than it looked. As high as I was, I could see the town and beyond it. I pulled out my SRD and saw everything that was far away clearly. I looked down at the roof of the hospital seeing the sentry guarding it. I went to the other side of the watchtower to look at the next largest building nearby. It was the elementary school right outside of town. That was the place where Charlie said that the Super Mutants lived at.

I stared out at it. The school had one large one story building and a two story building off to the side. Then I saw them. The SRD was apparently already programmed to recognize them. It pulled up statistical readings on them, zeroing in on one of them. They were large, bigger than any man I had ever seen. They stood about eight to ten feet tall, yellow green skin, and boulder-like muscles. They were definitely super mutants. They were huge. But they still had some kind of humanity to them, from what I could tell. They shook hands with one another. These Super Mutants were definitely intelligent and hopefully not hostile. I stared at them for a moment, realizing that I had been looking at them for a full five minutes or more. Maybe some time soon I'd be able to hold a conversation with one without any hostile intentions. My amazement of the new sights gave me something to think about. I was so distracted I didn't realize what the watchtower had inside it. There was a Radio situated on a table as well as weapon cases and field reports. I picked the locks on the weapon cases to come in contact with three very well preserved Sniper Rifles and had fifty rounds each.

"Oh hell yeah," I said smirking. Before I did anything else, I looked at the field report in the desk.

_April 1__st__ 2077_

_Loris United States Army Response Bunker Watchtower_

_Personal Field Report_

_Active Sentry: Corporal Isaac Piers_

_The town of Loris is still all quiet. With the threat of the Chinese Military, the Bunker is still operational and sentries are stationed in this tower in case Chinese forces make it here. So far, their forces haven't gotten this far but we remain here just in case so the town can be evacuated. On the downside, the war has gone nuclear. As of now, I am to abandon my post and assist with the evacuation of any and all civilians to the Vault-tech Vaults in Myrtle Beach. Unfortunately I don't have time to activate the Security features for the Bunker with the exception of locking up the front door. This is my last log. I only hope that we make it._

I put the holotape in my backpack before looking at the Sniper Rifles then out at the town. Somewhere in there, was a prewar military bunker. If that was the case, it opened up a brand new set of possibilities for my Nation. I looked down at the street where Lauren and her team were. They were at the Library, one building down from the chamber of commerce. That was about a five minute walk from the base of the tower. I grabbed all three weapons cases (strapping one to my back), and the field report to descend down onto ground level. I walked up the street towards Lauren's scavenging team. Immediately she was loading a box full of books and looked at me.

"Whatcha got there?" She asked.

"Sniper Rifles," I replied slightly winded, "You're not going to believe this." I put the sniper rifles on the back of the truck and pulled out the holotape and let her read it.

"A military bunker!?" She asked rather loudly.

"Yeah," I spoke, "What if this place is full of supplies we need? It can help us a lot when we have more when we recruit more people."

"Where'd you get those rifles then?" She asked, "Don't you know where the Bunker is?"

"I got them from the top of that watchtower," I answered pointing up at it, "And no I don't know, but after we get the hospital locked down, we're going to be looking for it okay?"

"I can't wait," Lauren said exasperated.

"How about I help you guys?" I asked, "That way we can get us back at the hospital and tell the others."

"Sounds like a plan Nate," She replied.

"So what kind of books did you find?" I asked as one of the Freed slaves got in the truck and prepared to move the truck forward.

"A lot of educational ones," She replied, "Mostly biographies and American History texts."

"Good," I replied, "Ready for the next street?"

"Of course."

The next street over was pretty much a waste of time with the exception of one building. It was a business that made other business signs. It could prove useful later. Returning to the hospital, we ended up unloading all the supplies Lauren's team had gathered in the front lobby. Soon after, the other scavengers returned as well. When they did return, I was helping with the fortifications on the rear parking lot entrance. The cars were stacked up on each thanks to the forklifts. After that it was all about putting razor-wire along the top that way no one attempted to climb it.

Dusk was on its way and all of us were done working for the day. Closing up the hospital, we returned to the farm where Charlie and Janice were waiting with open arms. The day had been busy for all of us. While my group had been working away to fortify and gather supplies for our starting headquarters, Charlie and Janice were busy teaching the young kids how to manage and maintain the farm. It was a pretty productive day for everyone. Charlie asked us what all we accomplished today.

"As soon as we get a gate on the hospital parking lot entrance, I'll be more comfortable with letting all of us stay there," I announced, "Once that happens, everyone is going to go through training similar to how we did growing up alright?"

"Why do we have to go into training?" One of the freed slaves asked in a complaining voice.

"Just because you have a gun doesn't make you a soldier," Jordyn spoke, "It just makes you a target. What good is having that gun if you get hit your target or can't fight against them. What good is it if you can't keep up with your unit or have the smarts to use tactics on the battlefield? The Enclave are trained from birth and they have bigger guns and armor than we do. Having this training will allow you to have the advantage. Understood?"

"Yes…" One of the Freed Slaves muttered.

"For that matter," I continued, "It seems that Jordyn is the ideal drill sergeant for you all." Jordyn nodded silently.

"Tomorrow we're going to build a gate on the hospital," I spoke, "After we finish the fortifications on the hospital, your training starts the day after."

My word was law. That was apparent, because nobody objected to it. My father once told me I was a born leader. I was starting to see why. I don't think anyone could organize this group as well as I did. The only thing I'd have to make a mental note of, was to stop calling the newest members Freed Slaves, and start calling them soldiers….


	9. The Charter

**Part Two: The Outside**

**Chapter 8: The Charter**

For the entire week, our fortifications of the hospital had come along nicely. We had built a gate and an elevated platform on the right side of the gate. Using a simple mechanical pulley system the gate would open without anyone pushing it open manually. We added razor wire around the fenced in areas of the hospital. The scavenging parties brought in more useful equipment every day. Jared's idea about a spotlight being on the roof went into effect thanks to scavenging teams finding several lighting hardware in one of the local stores. We built a snipers perch on the third story hole in the side of the building. The perch was a piece of a metal walkway in one of the buildings that were cleaned out. It was supported by large metal poles that were welded onto the metal wall inside the room that the hole was a part of.

There was a storage room in the back left corner of the hospital. I quickly came up with a martial law that no one was touching a weapon unless it was assigned to them. We had limited weapons and ammo. For that we turned the storage room into an weapons armory which was possible because we took a barred door from the last bank that was scavenged from and placed it in the frame of original door. After dismantling the larger two-way door nearby which led to that storage room, we fortified it. We built a cage wall with a large slot so weapons could be slid through. A desk was put there as well for the Quartermaster to use in keeping track of the weapons by computer.

We brought over several gun cabinets from the local police station that John's Group scavenged through. They also brought over body armor and riot gear such as riot shields, helmets, joint guards, tazers, and Flashbang grenades. There were several N99's, .357 magnums, and Shotguns for the taking and even something I hadn't seen out in the wastes before. Five AEP7 Laser Pistols with ammo. Nevertheless, there were enough ballistic vests for all of us plus ten left over. The original group didn't need them though as we were already armed with our ballistic vests from the vault. Doing inventory on weapons and ammo was almost murder. It took three of us eight hours to do so. We went by the serial numbers that were already on the side of the weapons. It would be easier to track the weapons that way. The information would be entered into the hospital's terminal network system. The only thing we had to do now, was assign a Quartermaster. Tom was the first to jump up and ask for the position. He was handy with regular guns and energy weapons as he used to be Aynor's Gun dealer. Now he could continue his wish to watch over the weapons.

There was a meeting room established on the third floor overlooking the courtyard. It use to be an educational room until it was converted. This meeting room would only be for the ones presently here. Jordyn was training the new guys quite quickly. As soon as they completed their training, they would be considered soldiers who would probably help train the next group or be potential recruiters. The meeting was taking place now, with Charlie included.

"I think establishing a government would be imperative," Charlie spoke, "That way there's no beating around the bush in leadership when you get more recruits. I've seen a lot of unorganized groups such as raiders. Their leadership system is based on who's brave and quick enough to kill the current leader. The Brotherhood of Steel use to be lead by one individual until he passed away. Now they operate with different chapter leaders and is now lead by elders. The NCR uses democracy as their government."

I looked at the others. "He's the boss," Matt said plainly gesturing at me, "He's the one getting us through this."

"Pretty much," Zack agreed.

"I can manage everything as it is right now," I answered to Charlie, "But when our little organization becomes larger, we'll erect a council who will help see things through on an aspect alright?"

"Agreed," Lauren spoke up for me, "But I think all outsiders should not know who the leader is. All it would do is put a big target on your back, ours included."

"She's right," Erika spoke, "I don't think it's wise for any of us to go announcing what we're up to with our names in the open. The Enclave will target us and whoever follows us."

"Point taken," I inputted, "Very well, it'll be martial law. _No soldier, no matter the reason, is permitted to give out information on higher ranking officers to civilians or outsiders._"

"I think we're going to have to put that in a rule book," Angela said catching everyone's attention, "Think about it guys. The only rule we have here is obey the leader. All anyone will do is think that we follow one person for his own gain."

"Another thing that will be put into effect," I continued, "I will start writing up tenants as soon as possible. What am I missing….oh of course. Angela here has brought up a very important suggestion. She intends to keep track of our history, something that I think is important. We both believe that the future depends on how things worked in these times. But what good is it if they don't know how it happened? Agreed?"

There were a lot of nods for that one. "Jordyn," I spoke, "How's the recruit's training coming along?"

"Fairly," Jordyn replied, "I've got them constantly running an obstacle course, then practicing with N99's afterwards. Afterwards, I make sure they can take care of their N99's by making them take them apart and put them back together. Soon they'll be able to do it blindfolded. So far, it seems that Benjamin and Tom are the only two who know how to actually operate with a wide variety of weaponry."

"Good," I replied, "We're going to cram in their brains what we did our entire lives into two months." I turned to Jared. "We all know Jared here is probably the most brilliant mind when it comes to technology."

"…apart from you," Jared piped up.

"I'm putting him in charge of a division that focuses on technology," I continued, "His mission is to develop our current technology into something greater, procuring undiscovered technology, and maintaining it."

"It sounds like you just took an excerpt from the Brotherhood of Steel," Charlie commented.

"I've been thinking for a long time," I replied to his comment. "The Brotherhood of Steel and the NCR are both amazingly talented in what they do. We're going to adopt the belief that technology should be maintained and preserved for the best of humanity. Charlie once told me that he saw how the Brotherhood operates out West and the Midwest. The West are pretty much selfish with their technology while the Midwest established a government of their own and rule with an iron fist. They are pretty much the Enclave only they don't shoot any wastelander they see. Now the Capital Wasteland Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel use their technology to aid the wastelanders there and have become the ruling body up there. They had a huge technology boom from the war with the Enclave. Charlie even told me there were rumors of that chapter operating with equipment from outer space. I don't know if I believe it myself, but it seems that those guys are pretty strong in their rule. We're going to adopt their ways of dealing with the relationship between their technology and civilians. I also believe in the NCR's methods. They use nothing but military might and semi-democracy as their way of ruling. We're going to combine our military strength, tactics, and technology to protect the people of the Carolina Wasteland. Eventually, we'll become the ruling body of the Carolina Wasteland."

"If the Enclave doesn't move first," Charlie added.

"Which is why our names will not be forged to those who are not with us," I continued and nodded, "That's why we're going to need a name. Something that has some prewar meaning behind it but also will give our enemies and neutrals a lot to think about when we rise to the occasion. The Enclave claim to be the last living true Americans. We were a part of the Enclave to begin with. Now, we are on our own. We're in the Carolina Wasteland. Let's change this Wasteland into something we have control of. I'm thinking that our nation should be called the United States of Carolina or USC for short. For now, Loris is the capital. Our military is despotism which will develop into council despotism when we are more in numbers. I will be writing a book called the USC Charter. It'll contain every tenant and any regulation that is deemed necessary for this Nation to operate."

"What about this bunker that's somewhere in Loris?" John spoke up, "Isn't it about time we started searching for it?"

"Of course," I said, "For the next month, the USC operations will remain in this area. I want the soldiers trained relentlessly. We will not scout one mile beyond Loris a radius."

"I wouldn't just confine yourselves to Loris," Charlie spoke, "Tabor City is right up the road from me. I don't know what you'll find when you go up there, but I do know that if it's anything like Loris and hasn't been scavenged through yet, It'll be worth it."

"I'll see what I can do about that," I replied, "Right now our first priority as far as patrolling goes is searching for the Bunker."

"About your future actions," Charlie spoke, "Do you remember the dogs I was breeding?"

"Yes sir."

"They're old enough to start training," He continued, "If you want your first order of guard dogs, I suggest you have one of your friends come and learn how to train them. Later, he or she can teach someone else the same to another person."

"Alright," I replied, "Any volunteers?"

"I'll do it," Erika volunteered immediately. I was slightly taken aback by her eagerness. Out of all of us, Erika was the least inclined to a fight. She would fight is she had to, but she didn't wish it. Training the dogs would get her out of the line of duty and danger. I nodded, seeing things her way.

"For the thing on our to-do list," I spoke, "I think we need to establish contact with the local Super Mutants. If what Charlie said is true, then they aren't hostile towards humans, just slightly mistrusting due to the persecution of their kind. If they're not hostile towards us, then we won't be towards them."

"That's a bold belief Nathan," Charlie spoke, "Trusting a Super Mutant is in fact dangerous, but these ones seem decent enough. They remember the Enclave's involvement with their creation all those years ago. You twelve and the Super Mutants have something in common. You were experimented on by the Enclave." That left a lot of thought for everyone here, especially me. If we could get _some _super mutants on our side, then maybe they could help us with winning this war.

The meeting was adjourned after that and we realized that we had a lot of work left to do. Lauren and I decided to share a bedroom after we tidied up a large patient's room by visiting local furniture stores and getting anything useful, like a king sized bed. For the rest of the day, we decided that we'd take a break though. Tomorrow we will resume operations. But tonight, I was enjoying the free time I had with Lauren. It made for an interesting night, considering we both lost our virginity. I remembered laying there with her, warm skin and all. I thought about the future, a perfect world where I could keep her safe. I realized later, that I was dreaming a long shot.

The next morning, waking up and untangling ourselves to find our clothes, we decided that it was time to get started on today's to do list. He set up an office in one of two cardio-exercise rooms in the hospital. This one was on the third floor directly over the entrance lobby. There were windows over the courtyard and the parking lot, a balcony on each end for the outdoor equipment during the prewar. I started to write up the USC Charter. To begin with, as I have no idea what other sorts of things I should put in it, I just started writing it down on a piece of paper. Some of the offshoot things I came up with would probably define us later on.

_USC motto_

_To Protect the innocent, to enforce justice, to restore humanity, to eradicate evil, to acquire knowledge, to acquire and preserve Technology, to promote peace._

_Tenants:_

_No soldier, no matter the reason, is permitted to give out information on higher ranking officers to civilians or outsiders._

_Never disobey a direct order from a higher ranking officer._

_Never harm the innocent._

_Acquire weapons and technology to further our cause._

_Never betray the USC to outsiders._

_Unless given directive, do not discuss USC military operations or advances in technology with civilians or outsiders._

_The Council's decisions and orders are martial Law._

_Respect and maintain any policy given by the council._

_**Policies-**_

_Enclave- It is the duty of a USC soldier to shoot any Enclave Military Personnel or Active hostile Enclave technology on sight. It is unlawful to kill unarmed or surrendering military personnel unless directed from Council or higher ranking officers. It is unlawful to kill Enclave civilians unless armed and hostile. Any Enclave who are not under the shoot on sight policy is to be detained and transferred to USC prisons._

_Raiders- It is the duty of a USC soldier to shoot any Raider on sight in order to protect USC civilians. If the Raider surrenders, he or she must be detained._

_Drug abuse- Unless medicated by doctor, the usage of any controlled substance is prohibited. Unlawful controlled substance no matter the circumstances such as Jet and Psycho are prohibited. Abusers will be fined or face jail time._

_Murder/Self Defense- The murder of anyone is prohibited and will result in execution of the murderer. Self Defense is lawful and must be within reason._

_Guns and Ordinance- Guns and Ordinance are regulated by a four class system. Any abusers of the regulated guns and ordinance will be detained and the weapons seized._

_USC Military Contracts- Soldiers and civilians who sign the a USC military contract are required to uphold the contract's statements or will be detained, serve in prison, or executed depending on the severity of their actions._

That was what I could come up with at the moment. I didn't go too far into depth as I figured we needed more structure and more soldiers for that matter. I walked over to the front of the office overlooking the first set of recruits being trained by Jordyn. I knew Angela and Matt were probably setting up Angela's new office in the second largest room in here which was a hospital records room. I always knew there was a thing between them just like the rest of us. Those two being the youngest probably got picked on the most for it. The hospital had security cameras to it, cameras that Jared was trying to work with and make them operational once more. The boy was a genius. I had full confidence in his technical aptitude. He often called me an equal in the technical arts, but I knew better. I was second best compared to him and I was not ashamed of it. Jessica, nine times out of time, was hanging around Lauren who was downstairs probably trying to get something working or reviewing inventory. Zack and Brook were probably wandering the halls of the hospital, probably scheming up something involving the empty town outside. As for John and Christina, I honestly had no idea what they could be doing. If figured I should check on the two.

It took a few minutes, but I actually found them in the emergency room at the rear of the hospital. They were talking about exploring Tabor City, seeing if they could find something worthwhile. "I wonder if there is any worthwhile supplies up there," Christina asked John.

"I'm pretty sure there is," John replied.

"That's why we're going to be sending a team up there as soon as possible," I spoke up from behind, "You guys up for it?" They looked back at me surprised.

"Fuck yeah," John said instantly.

"Alright," I spoke, "Let's find a few of the others."

A few minutes later me, Jessica, John, Lauren, Christina, Matt, Brooke, Angela, and Zack were loading up in three vehicles. One scavenging squad would patrol from Loris to Tabor looking through the few buildings there were. The other two would have a look at the town itself. Brooke, Angela, and Zack stopped on 701 to be the team on the road. The rest of us kept going.

The outer most of the town was in ruins. The only thing I saw that actually looked decent was the gas station right on 701. The rest of the town was in ruins with the exception of the market area and the school. The market area was sort of like the street that encompassed the Warehouse the railroad, and the drugstore in Loris. The town was quiet. When we moved into the town, we noticed something. Hanging from street posts were corpses that had been mutilated. There was spray paint on the walls, blood, everything. Someone had been here recently and whoever that someone was, was sick in the head.

"Christina," I said holding my assault rifle with one hand, "Give us a scan with the SRD."

"Understood," Christina replied nodding and pulling out the SRD. "There are several contacts. Five in one building, three in the other. The Restaurant and the salon. One of them is coming out."

"Everyone," I said, "to cover. I'm going to attempt to negotiate." Everyone left the safety of the trucks and moved around large piles of debris making sure they were ready to fire. When the man walked, I saw that he had makeshift armor made of junk. The man had some kind of magnum as a weapon.

"The fuck?" The man commented then grinned, "Oh hell yeah. Come on boys we've got someone to kill!" Contrary to his statement, he pulled out his magnum only to be shot by me with my assault rifle. I ran for the corner of a building ready to fire. It was then I realized that we had stumbled upon a gang of Raiders. They fit the description Charlie gave us. Dirty, crappy armor, mutilates people while hanging them on walls like decoration, and immediately hostile towards anyone or anything. The Raider's came pouring out the two buildings only to be gunned down by the entire group. Immediately, I heard something from my left as I leaned against the wall of the destroyed building. Something was coming down this alleyway. I peaked over the dumpster next to me to see a Raider creeping up towards me with a machete. I put my gun away and pulled out my combat knife.

As soon as the Raider crept up around the corner of the dumpster where I could see him, I grabbed the arm he had the machete in, shoving against him while stabbing him in the chest right in the heart. The Raider dropped the machete and fell on the ground holding his wound as he died out, looking at me with shocked eyes. "Should've picked a different career," I spoke to him as he died. I sheathed my combat knife and scanned the area with my SRD. No more contacts that I could see. Except three. It looked like they were in another room further up the street all asleep or something.

"All clear," John announced.

"Not clear," I spoke to them, "The clothing store three buildings up. There are three contacts, presumably asleep. Jessica and Matt, start scavenging the hardware store but be on your guard. Everyone else, to the clothing store. "Christina, keep your eyes peeled with that SRD." She moved with us looking around through the SRD.

"Clear," She spoke. We moved over to the entrance of the clothing store our backs pressed against it in a formation. We were ready for them. I peered inside to see that it was clear. Walking in, I saw that several shelves were lined up like a box around the sleeping area. The place was full of blood, mutilated corpses hanging on the walls and from the ceiling. The stench was awful. I held my breath walking towards the shelves only to find an even more disgusting sight.

Two naked young women around our age had been chained by their limbs on mattresses, both having been raped obviously; one in the process of being raped. The third heat signature was a Raider and he was violating the whimpering girl. He moaned with each thrust to her cries. I saw red.

My temper overcame me as I had yanked the Raider off the woman. "Hey," He uttered as he was manhandled with little effort. With one hand I threw him into one of the shelves which it fell over with him on top of it. The others stopped and stared looking at the sight. The Raider went to get up but I shot his knee with a single shot from my N99 and then kicked him. He stumbled backwards falling out the window of the clothing store. I stepped up on the window seal then shot his other knee. "OW you shot me! You dick, you mother fucker!"

"You're a sick son of a bitch you know that?" I seethed then shot him in the right arm. The Raider was yelling in pain, screaming bloody murder. "Enjoy hell you bastard." A headshot later, silenced the Raider. The others just stared, looking disgusted. My temper started to dwindle as I walked back towards the nude girls before stopping. "Lauren, Christina." The nodded as if understanding. John and I stayed out the store so the girls could check up on the rape victims in private.

"That's some fucked up shit," John said shaking his head.

"Tell me something I don't know."

"Jesus," He swore, "I didn't know what the hell happened. All I saw was you throwing that guy into the shelf then blasting his kneecap out."

"It was justified," I said huskily.

"I'm not saying it wasn't," John said, "Damn man, I didn't expect to come across something like that."

"I didn't either," I replied just looking around at the town, "I'm glad we found them when we did. Otherwise they might end up like these people on the walls."

Lauren came out of the building. "They're fine," She said, "Apart from what happened. They were just captured yesterday. The Raiders…they've been taking turns non-stop."

"Jesus fucking Christ," John uttered exasperated and appalled. I shook my head in disgust.

"They're clothed," She continued, "But they're exhausted and starving."

"Alright," I said immediately compensating for that and giving Lauren the truck key, "you and Christina get them back home. Give them food and water. I don't think a nice bed would be too much to ask for either."

"Okay," Lauren replied nodding then went to get the two women to their feet.

"Let's finish this job," I replied shaking my head. While Lauren and Christina took the two girls back to the hospital, the rest of us continued to scavenge what we could. Weapons, medical supplies, ammo, and some tools and similar equipment were all we found so far. There wasn't much else to the place. Just scrap metal and bodies. I looked at the bodies with John and the others.

"Tomorrow we're going to burn the bodies," I spoke, "There's an incinerator in the morgue near the cemetery. It just doesn't seem right to have all of these bodies lying around." The three nodded grimly. We returned to the hospital finding that Jordyn was still training his first set of initiates. Unloading our new stock into the armory, Tom started to inspect each and every weapon and all the ammo we had salvaged before he recorded their data into the computer. He also inspected the weapons that were taken out on patrol and did a count on the ammo we used. Surprisingly, we hadn't used much. With the amount of ammo we used and what we had salvaged, it evened out. I was a busy man. That was apparent. I updated the charter immediately as today's scavenging trip had given me a lesson on how fucked up things were out here.

_Theft/Rape-The theft of any personal belonging of another will result in the thief's arrest. The Rape of any man, woman, or child will result in detainment and possible execution._

Afterwards, I helped Tom out in the armory as he repaired most of the weapons that were used. "I took apart two assault rifles," He said, "We had enough to have a fully restored gun. The only other thing I could salvage from the damaged rifles was the stock off of one and the trigger and feed systems of the other. The rest is just scrap. Tom had set up his own personal little workbench area off to the side of the room. He was a true gunsmith, something I admired as I too took a liking to maintaining and repairing guns.

"What about that 10mm SMG over there?" I asked.

"I hadn't gotten to inspecting it," He replied oiling down the chamber of the disassembled assault rifle.

"Let me help you then," I said getting started.

Working with Tom was a pretty cool experience. We talked about guns mostly during our maintenance of the guns. He really intrigued me when he spoke about all the weapons he had seen ranging from energy weapons like the Plasma repeater to explosives such as C4.

"Hell," He said after continuing his much appreciated rant on weaponry, "A lot of people make their own improvised weapons."

"Improvised weapons?" I asked.

"Yeah," Tom said as he started to put an Assault Rifle back together, "Take the Nuka-grenade for instance. All you have to do is get a tin can, Abraxo cleaner, Turpentine, duct tape, a nozzle with a stopper of any kind, then bam! You've got a ten second explosive Nuka-grenade that can cause a powerful explosion that can waste an entire platoon of Raiders. Of course you have to add either Nuka cola Quantum, Quartz, or even Green. All you have to do is shake the can one time, turn the nozzle, then throw."

"Sounds pretty cool," I replied, "Know any more Improvised weapons?"

"Quite a few," He replied, "Tell you what? I'll write down everything we need for these weapons. You bring back anything compatible, I'll make a weapon and we'll field test it."

"Alright," I replied nodding, "You get back to me on that and I'll have the scavenge teams pick those up if they find them."

"Okay I will," He replied.

I locked the cage door behind me as protocol dictated it. Only a few had a key to the armory and that included me and Tom. I went over to the corridor on the first floor we deemed the actual medical ward. The two girls were propped up on medical beds, Jessica being the one to check on them most of the time. Jessica was a pretty good field medic, right under Lauren and I. She did the right thing doing an initial check-up and giving me the results. One of them had a concussion while both had a lot of bruises.

"How're you ladies doing?" I asked walking in.

"As good as we can be I guess," The blonde said.

"How'd you find us?" The brunette asked.

"We were out on a scavenging mission," I replied, "A friend told us that Tabor City was right there. We have some advanced technology that allowed us to see how many we were facing. We killed them all of course, but I saw three of you on the HUD, heat signatures. It looked like you were sleeping. Initially, I thought you were Raiders but then I saw what was really going on. The rest you know from there."

"Thank you," The blonde said, "but if you don't mind me asking. Who exactly are you people? I saw what looked like a drill sergeant training a bunch of wastelanders."

"My name is Nathan," I replied, "I'm the founder of the new organization called United States of Carolina. All of us here are here for one purpose. The Carolina Wasteland is in danger from the Enclave and all the evil souls in this world like the Raiders. We're here to fight. We're not mercenaries, we're not guns for hire. We fight because it is the right thing to do."

"That sounds awfully noble of you," The brunette spoke, "But where do you get the funding and equipment from?"

"Surprisingly," I replied sitting on her bed, "We've been fortunate enough to come across Prewar banks for funding, and scavenging for most of our equipment. It's turned out quite fruitful so far as Loris was completely untouched by slavers or whoever. If you think about it, most people travel the interstates as they offer quicker routes to Myrtle City. My friends and I came out of a Vault under the control of the Enclave. We were lied to our entire time there. Under a ruse thinking we were learning survival, we were actually under a strict military training period from the time we were barely teenagers, to the time we escaped. The Enclave are further West in the Carolina's. Our goal is to stop their advancement any further East."

"Sounds like you all are lucky," The Wastelander said, "To come across this hospital."

"I do admit that our luck has impressed me so far," I spoke nodding, "But we are organized and we only have this one compound so far. I goal is to expand our influence and aid the Eastern cities such as Myrtle City. I heard that Myrtle City, no matter how wealthy it is, is constantly under threat of Raider attacks or slavers."

The two women looked at each other. "We want to be a part of it then," The Brunette said, "If you're helping people out, we want to help you help them out."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes," The Blonde spoke, "We don't want other children or women falling into the same situation we did. Being used and tormented…."

"Once you're in," I continued, "You stay in for a minimum of ten years. There's no way out."

"We'll do what we have to," The blonde said firmly.

"Very well," I said, "I'll have to get you to sign a contract. What are your names again?"

"Austin," The blonde spoke.

"Mary," The brunette spoke.

"Very well," I said, "When you two are healed up completely, you'll join the others in training. I'll come back in tomorrow to see how you're doing. Jessica will be your aid until you recover."

"Thank you," Austin spoke.

I simply nodded as I walked out the recovery room. I found myself watching over the initiates. Jordyn was teaching them fighting with hand to hand combat. After I stayed and watch them for a while, I found myself with Angela who was still writing in that history book of hers. She had a desk full of papers, all reminders and little excerpts she wrote so she could keep track of things. It seemed that she was recording every little thing she could. She wrote down things starting from when we were inducted into the survival program in the Vault to now. The thing about her was that she customized her Pipboy to record everything she wanted. She often recorded lectures on her survival lessons or even recorded meetings. It seems that she also had written down our decisions and titled the meetings in numerical order. There was even a holotape she used to record the meetings on a shelf nearby. That bookshelf was probably going to hold every meeting we will ever have. Every shelf was organized in a section. She was that dedicated. She even had her own publishing equipment in the room next to this one. In fact, if she continued with this much work, she'd probably take up the room across the hall as well. Luckily for her, this entire wing of the third floor was all for her work.

"Hey Nate!" She said as I walked in, "Hey I got a question. I think we should have members of the military write out their own biography."

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Well," Angela continued, "I think it's important for each person to have their own recorded history. Think about it. Their birth, their time before here, their time during here, their achievements, their rank, their end of service whether it'd be through contract, death, or retirement….it all explains how valuable we hold each individual."

Yep, she was dedicated. "Very well," I said after deciding a few minutes later, "Do what you want. Just don't distract them too much from their training."

"Thank you!" She said giddily, "Hey don't forget about ours!"

"I won't," I replied laughing before heading out once more. I figured it was time to check on Jared's progress with the security cameras. I met him walking back from wherever he was originally to his little security room.

"Hey man what's up?" He asked busily as he went in his security room with me behind him.

"Checking on your progress," I spoke.

"Well I got all the security camera's working with the exception of one," He said, "It's strange because I can't find it in the hospital yet it says it's active. See look at this." He showed me a list of active cameras and their number. "You see, There are fifty total cameras. They're separated into five groups, F1, F2, F3/F4, O1, and then B1. Now all the F1's are on the first floor. F2's on the second. F3/F4's are all on the third and fourth floor. Okay now there are three security cameras for O1, which is outside the hospital looking at the alleyway, the parking lot, and the back lot with the closed ambulance awning. But this B1? There's only one basement that I could find and there are no camera's down there. I don't get it. It says it's active but I don't know where that active one is."

"Is it really that important?" I asked rhetorically.

"Oh course!" Jared said, "What if this is the one way someone can get through our defenses?"

"It was rhetorical," I deadpanned, "I understand your concerns fully. That's why I'm going to see if I can find this camera."

So I attempted to help Jared find all the cameras which we found all but one, which was the last one he failed to find. I spent the better part of three hours looking for the camera in the hospital. Going to bed slightly frustrated, Lauren had a good habit of taking my mind off of things. I swear she was probably the only one who could change my mood so quickly, especially if she was in my arms under the covers in the warmth of our bed.

The next day, by noon after five hours of relentless searching, I had three people looking for that fucking camera alongside me. Annoyance and frustration didn't really describe how I was feeling at the moment. I was pissed off at the pope for everything he did four hundred years ago…and that was just me trying to find a little security camera.

"Okay I'll bite," I said walking into the security room, "What the hell is this thing pointing at?" I looked at the screen.

"Some kind of door," Jared said, "Almost like….oh how can I be so stupid!?"

"Huh?" I asked. Then I noticed something too. Those doors looked exactly like….

Jared, Lauren, Jessica, and I were standing in front of the metal ambulance port, me having bolt cutters. The steel doors looked exactly like the ones on the camera only from the interior. There was a large padlock holding the doors together. "You've got to be kidding me….." Jared walked up and looked under the doors. "Anything in there?"

"Naw man," Jared said getting up, "But there's a heavily enforced large door in the ground. It's like a ramp going underground."

I furrowed my brow going up and looking under it for myself. My heart quickened as I saw a number on the front of the door with a United States Army logo on the side of the wall nearby. "Guys," I said exasperated and getting up to clamp the bolt cutters over the padlock, "Get the council here now. We'll show Erika later."

"What?" Jessica asked, "What is it?"

"If I'm correct," I said starting to squeeze on the handles as a sense of nostalgia started to form over me, "I think….we just found the Bunker of the United States Army stationed in Loris….."

…

The End.


	10. An unfortunate AN

A/N

First off, I'd like to apologize for the long unfulfilled promise of not updating for a while. I know I promised quicker updates which ultimately didn't happen. It isn't my choice, but it's what I have to work with. First off, during three fourths of completing both my chapters for The Chronicles of the Chosen One and Fallout: New Carolina my computer literally crashed and the hard drive was burnt up due to a malfunctioning fan. I unfortunately was _not_ smart enough to back up everything I had on it so everything involving my Fanfiction's, my school, and all my personal belongings are gone forever. This computer has served me well for three years and it finally gives in. Secondly, I am afraid that due to me being in the process of moving, I will not be able to pick anything back up until I'm situated. The estimated time is maybe December. That right there, would be the downside of moving from a 60 acre farm to a four acre piece of land in Myrtle Beach. My internet is cut out and there is nothing I can do about it due to bills, legal issues with getting my address changed, loans, etc. The only support I can give everyone of my readers is that a family member of mine is using another profile under called Nathan364. He's got a similar writing style as I do but only does this for the fun of it. I think he's going to make a rewrite of my Legacy of the Lone Wanderer fan fiction while using the same material I have implemented only with his own touch.

Once again, I'm sorry for the disappointment. Not knowing if this is my last A/N: this is Sabor364 signing off and I wish you all good luck in your readings. As a fanfiction copyright statement, none of the canon and characters are owned by me, just the stories in which I tell. As for that, I humbly ask you not to use my works or continue them. I _may_ in the distant future return…..


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